Ex-surgeon to pay $87,000 in Workers’ Comp fraud

CLINTON, N.Y. » A former orthopedic surgeon has been sentenced to one year conditional discharge for his role in defrauding the Workers’ Compensation system for $87,000.

Dr. Gregory B. Shankman, 70, of Clinton, surrendered his medical license and paid full restitution of $86,896 on Tuesday in Oneida County Court. He pleaded guilty in April to two counts of second-degree offering a false instrument for filing in a scheme to “enrich himself by practicing fraud instead of medicine,” according to New York State Inspector General Catherine Leahy Scott.

The investigation found that Shankman was not in his Genesee Street offices in Utica on more than 150 separate days between January 2015 and August 2017 while certifying hewas at the office eachof those days overseeing multiple Workers’ Compensation exams. On many of the days when he indicated he was performing exams at his offices in Utica, he was in fact performing other exams in offices near Buffalo, was out of state, and even traveling in Iceland in the spring of 2016.

As such, Shankman systematically submitted false bills for medical services rendered by a Workers’ Compensation medical provider to the State Insurance Fund, the County of Oneida and other insurance carriers, third party administrators, and self-insured entities.

“His criminal acts enabled him to travel extensively and vacation abroad while shunning the most basic requirements of his job,” Leahy Scott said.

Oneida County District Attorney Scott D. McNamara and his office assisted with the investigation and prosecution.