In something other than good news for the Hostin family, Emmanuel “Manny” Hostin, an orthopedic surgeon and the husband of notedly far-left co-host of ABC’s “The View,” Sunny Hostin, has been swept up in a RICO case involving 200 total defendants in which it is alleged that there were massive levels of insurance fraud. Mr. Hostin has denied all allegations.
According to The Daily Mail’s exclusive report on the issue, Mr. Hostin and his 199 co-defendants have been accused of a scheme involving both kickbacks and fraudulent billing, with those bills submitted to an insurance company most known for its insurance of drivers for ride-share platforms Uber and Lyft, along with traditional cab companies.
The lawsuit was filed in New York City on December 17. In the suit, the largest ever under New York’s RICO law, it is alleged that Mr. Hostin. a doctor, fraudulently provided medical services including surgeries: “Hostin knowingly provided fraudulent medical and other healthcare services including arthroscopic surgeries,” the stunning lawsuit alleges.
Further, the suit claims that Mr. Hostin billed the driver insurance company, American Transit Insurance Company, and in so doing received various forms of compensation. That part of the lawsuit claims that the fraudulent billing was submitted “in exchange for kickbacks and/or other compensation which were disguised as dividends or other cash distributions.”
Mr. Hostin has, so far, denied all of the allegations he faces through his lawyer. Speaking in a statement to The Daily Mail for its exclusive report, Daniel Thwaites, an attorney who is representing Hostin in this case, said that his client “denies each and every allegation.” Further, Thwaites said, Mr. Hostin views the case as a “blanket, scattershot, meritless lawsuit by a near-bankrupt insurance carrier.”
That’s not all. Continuing with the verbal counter-offensive. Thwaites alleged that the insurer, which is indeed facing serious solvency issues, is trying to use the legal system to avoid its obligations and avoid bankruptcy. Making that claim, Thwaites said that the insurance company was “abusing the legal system” in order to “restrict health care benefits to its insureds and their passengers, and write off its proper obligations.”
Further, Thwaites alleged that the suit is a fraudulent attempt to prevent doctors from collecting their due payments as regards providing care to American Transit Insurance Company patients. He said, “It is meant to intimidate and harass doctors from collecting for care given to American Transit insureds and their passengers.”
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Continuing, Thwaites alleged on Mr. Hostin’s behalf that the lawsuit was brought without there ever having been a suitable examination of the doctor’s practices, saying, “American Transit has rushed into the lawsuit without ever conducting an examination of Dr. Hostin or expressing any concerns to his lawyers.”
Hostin, speaking previously about her surgeon husband’s work on “The View,” had commented on his allegedly having to sue insurance companies to get paid. She said, “[He] operates on someone even though they don’t have insurance and then has to sue health insurance companies to get paid for the work that he’s been trained his whole life to do.” Watch her here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video