SAN ANTONIO – Scammers know an opportunity to make money when they see one: they just might be taking advantage of all the confusion over health insurance.

The Better Business Bureau says this is just the first round – with two years until health care reform is fully in place, scammers have plenty of time to make an easy score off hard-working business people.

From an office in Boerne, Shawn Fluitt and his staff run Timekeepers Inc. and Tier One Security Management, companies that manage oilfield security guards.

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Like other small businesses, not everyone receives health benefits.

“Most of our field employees are over 50,” Fluitt says. “They’re full-time RV’ers that come in from all over the country for the winter.”

Fluitt says no one can tell him if he’ll have to offer insurance to all employees.

“Very confusing,” he says. “We don’t have a clue. We don’t know how to make a plan.”

Making it even more complicated, scammers are now trying to make a buck off the confusion.

“Anything new and different, this is usually when we see the scammers,” Kristi Pena with the Better Business Bureau says.

She says the sales pitches often promise great deals on health insurance but are short on details like a business address or even a website.

“They’re going to use this time frame before everything is explained, before we can completely understand what’s going on – they’re going to just saturate the market,” Pena says.

Fluitt says health care reform could cost small business a lot, so he’d hate to see someone rip off owners like him.

“We’re very careful about that kind of stuff,” he says. “We don’t just go flying off the handle to hire someone like that. But if somebody were not really careful about that, you could get stung.”

The FBI says health care fraud costs the country $80 billion a year.

The BBB says don’t just trash emails, faxes or voicemails that look like health insurance scams – turn them in through the BBB’s website.

MANSFIELD — A local psychiatrist could receive 20 years in federal prison and a $1 million fine if convicted of prescription fraud.

David Walter Massie, 59, was indicted last week on a single count of conspiracy to distribute Oxycontin or oxycodone.

According to the indictment from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Cleveland, Massie is accused of writing fraudulent prescriptions outside the course of traditional doctor-patient relationships to at least four people, who filled them and illegally distributed them back to Massie for his own personal use, distribution and sale to others.

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‘Huge problem’

“Prescription drug abuse is a huge problem in the state,” U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Mike Tobin said. “It’s greatly problematic when you’ve got a doctor engaged in it. This is an important case for those reasons.”

Four people reportedly involved in the case were patients of Massie, the indictment said. In addition to being patients, two of them also worked for Massie. None of them have been charged. Tobin declined to say if they would be charged in the future. They were identified in the indictment by their initials.
The probe

Authorities say the crimes began as early as January 2005 and continued through July 3, 2007, and involved more than 4,000 pills. Massie is suspected of selling Oxycontin or oxycodone for about $1 per milligram.

Oxycodone is one of the strongest prescription painkilling substances approved for use in the United States and is very addictive.

According to the indictment, Massie obtained Oxycontin or oxycodone through other means in May of this year and sold it. Tobin said he could not say how the investigation started.

Massie was arrested Thursday with help from the Richland County division of the Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force, METRICH Detective Dawn Brown said. Brown said Massie’s license was suspended several years ago. According to the Ohio State Medical Board website, his license expired in July 2008.

A former Bismarck-area insurance agent faces 27 felony charges related to accusations he pocketed more than $1.4 million from clients that was meant to go toward insurance premiums and investments.

Brent L. Kitzan was charged Friday with 14 counts of Class B felony theft of property, eight counts of Class C felony insurance fraud and five counts of Class B felony registration of securities.

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A warrant has been issued for Kitzan’s arrest. The Class B felonies carry maximum sentences of 10 years in prison, while the Class C felonies carry maximum five-year prison sentences.

Kitzan does not have a listed home phone number, and a number for his company, Kitzan and Associates, has been disconnected.

Kitzan was an insurance agent in Bismarck. In December, both the North Dakota Insurance Department and the North Dakota Securities Department issued cease and desist orders against Kitzan and his company, Kitzan and Associates, for alleged misappropriation of client funds.

According to affidavits from Kelly Wayne Mathias, supervisor of investigations and examinations with the securities department, and Joe Dale Pittman, a special investigator with the insurance department’s fraud unit, Kitzan is accused of defrauding clients, many of them elderly. The court documents say Kitzan was collecting insurance premiums from clients but never remitting the payments to insurance companies, taking out personal loans from clients and collecting money for investments from clients but never investing the money.

The two state agencies conducted a joint investigation of Kitzan following complaints about him.

“That investigation revealed and alleges that Brent L. Kitzan perpetrated multiple schemes against several clients, including elderly clients of his insurance book of business, and stole in excess of one million dollars,” Mathias’ affidavit said.

The charges filed Friday relate to 21 alleged victims for conduct dating back to 2003. In all, Kitzan is accused of taking $1,455,129.20 from the 21 clients. A married couple, identified as victims 12 and 13, took the biggest hit, with investment losses of $100,650 and fraudulent insurance payments of $257,264.04.

Mathias’ wrote in his affidavit that the securities department was contacted by Marian Manor Healthcare in Glen Ullin in October 2011 over concerns about a patient’s funds that were being managed by Kitzan. The investigation showed that Kitzan managed the money of the patient, identified as “victim one” in court documents, as well as that of the patient’s daughter, identified as “victim two.” Victim two’s grandson told investigators Kitzan “controlled everything” for the two women.

Victim two also reported Kitzan showed up at victim one’s home after she died and destroyed documents he said they didn’t need anymore. Victim two kept copies of some of the destroyed documents.

Other clients began questioning Kitzan when insurance companies sent them notices that there coverage had lapsed. Kitzan told them the notices were mistakes and he would take care of it. A financial planner helping an elderly couple, victims three and four, became suspicious that Kitzan was stealing from the couple when he was helping them with their finances. Other families discovered irregularities in the finances of Kitzan’s clients after their deaths.

Mathias’ affidavit said Kitzan was never registered as a securities agent or as a broker/dealer in North Dakota or elsewhere, and there was no record of him registering for the sale of securities in the companies in which he purportedly invested clients’ money.