Clinics Find Surgery Scam Pays - Latimes.com - Sun Jun 20, 12:09 pm GMT [News4Sites Healthcare] Outpatient surgery rent-a-patient scams are in the news again is Southern California. These scams often target low-wage employees at companies that offer health insurance. The clinic pays the insured person to let them do unnecessary surgery. They often employ runners to recruit new patients. Bill Mahon of the National Healthcare Anti-Fraud Association says that insurers have learned from this. In the article, Mahon says, “I think at this stage, most of the industry has learned a great deal from the experience. And they’re making changes to try to stop these things at the front door.” That would be a great improvement. Unfortunately, the back door and front windows are probably still open. New controls make it harder to commit fraud. If you’re lucky, locking the front door will make fraudsters decide to defraud somebody else, instead of you. But beware, they’ll be back, with some scam you never imagined.