New Bill Turns Tables On Auto Insurance Scammers

NEW YORK—Crashing into someone, then pretending your neck hurts will no longer be a road to quick cash if Alice’s Bill passes the New York state assembly. It was passed unanimously in the senate on May 9.

The bill is rooted in tragedy. Alice Ross, 71, was killed on March 22, 2003, after an auto insurance scammer forced her car off the road and into a tree.

Alice’s Bill, which is named after Ross, will make staged auto accidents a standalone crime. It aims to guard New Yorkers from people who cause auto accidents to get payments from insurance.

Auto insurance fraud cost New Yorkers an estimated quarter-billion dollars in 2010, according to New Yorkers Stand Against Insurance Fraud (NYSAIF), a grassroots coalition of citizens. They say professional scammers sometimes work with corrupt attorneys who find loopholes in the law, and medical professionals who write excessive medical bills.

If the bill is passed, it will put in place tougher penalties for anyone who cheats the system. It also proposes to de-certify medical professionals who commit insurance fraud, and modify the “30-day rule” to give insurers more time to investigate suspicious claims, among other measures.

Queens assemblyman David Weprin will be joined by representatives from NYSAIF on the steps of Manhattan’s City Hall on May 19 to call on the State Assembly to pass the bill.