Lost video leads to lawsuit

• MB Real Estate, a Chicago brokerage and property management firm, could be on the hook for several million dollars over alleged mishandling of evidence in a workers’ compensation lawsuit.
• Martin Kraslen, a former building engineer for MB Real Estate, filed the lawsuit against his former employer, claiming the company misplaced video of him being injured.
• A judge criticized MBRE for losing the video, writing it likely knew it had a duty to preserve it ahead of a trial in a separate lawsuit that was settled by the developers on the project.
• The injury to Kraslen’s knee and shoulder cost him between $500,000 to $1 million in medical bills and he still faces more surgery.
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Woman helps uncover workers comp scam

• A woman in Charlotte, North Carolina, received a text saying she had won thousands of dollars in a workers’ compensation claim.
• The woman became suspicious because she was never injured and her skepticism helped uncover a scam.
• The U.S. Department of Labor has a fraud notice about the scam, informing people of the possible fraudulent use of the Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board.
• ECAB is an appellate board and does not pay any monetary benefits directly. Unsolicited phone calls regarding the receipt of benefits should be reported to the Office of Inspector General.
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Harford Mutual to merge with ClearPath Mutual

• Harford Mutual Insurance Group plans to merge ClearPath Mutual Insurance Company, a monoline workers’ compensation carrier in Louisville, Kentucky into the Group.
• ClearPath Mutual, formerly KESA of Kentucky for over 40 years, provides monoline workers’ compensation coverage in Indiana, Kentucky, Georgia, Tennessee, and West Virginia.
• Through an independent agency plant and relationships with local chambers of commerce and associations,
• ClearPath has steadily grown and writes over $52 million in direct written premiums across nearly 7,000 policies.
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Ohio doc pleads guilty to fraud

• Jeffrey Sutton a physician who practiced in Niles, Ohio until early 2022, pleaded guilty in federal court on 31 counts of illegally prescribing patients opioids and other controlled substances.
• He also pleaded guilty to one count of illegally distributing controlled substances, and 20 counts of healthcare fraud.
• Sutton prescribed medically unnecessary controlled substances to patients outside of the usual course of professional practice and without a legitimate medical purpose.
• In doing so, court documents state that Sutton caused health care benefit programs to be fraudulently billed for both office visits and the controlled substances.
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