Four lawyers accused in health care schemes

Four South Florida personal-injury lawyers are accused of paying for car-accident victims to refer as patients to doctor’s offices that would, in turn, pay for the referrals, arrest records show.

From May 2015 to December 2016 the lawyers — one from Boca Raton and three from Fort Lauderdale — allegedly received $52,070 in kickbacks, investigators say.

All were arrested Sept. 6 on felony charges ranging from organized fraud to patient brokering and money laundering. They have since bonded out of jail. They are: Steven Slootsky, 57, has a law office in Boca Raton. He faces 15 charges and posted $13,000 bond.

Adam Hurtig, 46, faces 14 charges and posted $18,000 bond.

Mark Spatz, 58, faces 13 charges and posted $13,000 bond.

Vincent Pravato, 48, faces three charges and posted $2,750 bond.

Hurtig, Spatz and Pravato all have law offices in Fort Lauderdale.

“[The lawyers] were actively involved in illegal patient brokering and the unlawful solicitation of motor-vehicle accident victims throughout South Florida,” according to arrest records.

None of the lawyers could be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.

According to investigators, the lawyers would pay runners from tow yards and body shops to solicit car-crash victims for them. The lawyers then referred the victims for medical treatment to Margate Physicians or Broward Spine Associates in Plantation, which would pay the attorneys cash for the referrals.

“After the patient was brokered to the health care facility, the facility was then able to begin treatment and bill the auto insurance companies for claims covered by the PIP benefits, which resulted in fraud on the insurance companies,” according to arrest records.

Hurtig is further accused of “misappropriating his clients’ settlement funds,” records show.

Aside from participating in a split-fee arrangement with the clinics, Hurtig also took half of his clients’ settlement checks, records show.

Hurtig provided his clients’ settlement checks to the clinics to pay for outstanding medical bills and in return received “cash payments in the amount of half of the figure written on the checks,” according to arrest records.