Arbitration Awards $140 Million in Malpractice Against Panos

Monday, February 25, 2019 | 0

A New York physician who became famous for his ability to pull off alleged fraud while behind bars and without a license has been socked with $140 million in damages in what an attorney called the largest medical malpractice litigation in New York.

Spyros Panos
(YouTube image)

Spyros Panos, a former orthopedic surgeon from Poughkeepsie, New York, is best known in the workers' comp world for posing as another physician and providing fake peer reviews in Connecticut, New York, California and other states.

This week, an arbitrator in New York awarded the $140 million to settle 255 malpractice lawsuits that charged that the doctor faked surgeries for patients who didn't need them and failed to provide care for others who did, the New York Law Journal reported.

Panos is a “serial malpracticer,” said Christopher Meagher, a White Plains attorney who represented 32 plaintiffs in the arbitration.

Although Panos' practice carried three layers of insurance, there's still not enough to cover all the damages awarded, another attorney in the case said. Panos is awaiting federal charges in the peer-review case, and could face many years behind bars.

The malpractice awards come six years after Panos lost his medical license and his authority to treat injured workers in New York when he pleaded guilty to defrauding insurers out of more than $2.5 million by billing for surgeries that were never done. He served two and a half years in prison.

But prosecutors said that before entering prison, Panos and a family member set up a company, Excel-O, to perform workers' compensation peer reviews. After his release, he allegedly stole another physician's identity and continued to sign off on the utilization reviews, a practice that has called into question hundreds of reviews done for more than 60 insurance carriers, authorities have said.

He allegedly earned more than $860,000 before the operation was discovered by The Hartford Insurance Co., which alerted state regulators.

Panos is out on bail and a status hearing has been set for March 7, the U.S. Attorney's office in New York has said.