Urgent Care Center Is Unwittingly—and Innocently—at the Center of Insurance Fraud Case

In October, we shared the story of of a white mother who said an urgent care center refused to believe the little black girl with her was her daughter, despite her insistence that she had in fact adopted the girl; consequently, the girl was refused care and the urgent care center received a ton of negative attention. Now another urgent care center has been caught up in case on the flipside—treating a child who was brought in by an adult who was actually not the parent, as she claimed. That adult has been charged with insurance fraud, identity deception, insurance application fraud and, as the superintendent of a local school district in Indiana, official misconduct. Police say the woman brought a 15-year-old student in her district to an urgent care center because he complained of a sore throat. After that urgent care center turned them away because she wasn’t his parent or guardian, she drove to another urgent care center. This time, she told staff the boy was her son and even put her own son’s actual name on the insurance form she was asked to complete. The boy was seen and the two walked out with a prescription for amoxicillin. She followed the same steps to have the prescription filled at a local CVS. She has since resigned her post and agreed to a diversion program that will keep her out of jail. While the urgent care center has not been accused of any wrongdoing, and there appears to have been no reason to doubt the woman’s untruthful claim that the boy was her son, it is essential to be vigilant to patient interactions, especially when minors are involved.