Excessive Fees Went to Three Providers, Investigation Shows

Wednesday, May 23, 2018 | 0

Details continue to emerge about skyrocketing workers’ compensation in Paterson, New Jersey, after a former city councilman’s brother was suspended as risk manager for the city and for the school district.

Samir Goow, the brother of former Councilman Aslon Goow, was suspended earlier this month after an investigation showed that workers’ compensation medical billings almost doubled, to $2.3 million, in 2017.

Records show that almost all of that was from three out-of-network medical firms that Samir Goow allegedly added after he took over as risk manager in 2015, the Paterson Press newspaper reported Tuesday.

One of the firms shared an office building with Goow’s company, according to the report.

The payments to the three providers were more than that paid to 119 other health care providers in the city’s workers’ compensation program. The city’s overall compensation costs also jumped, from $3.1 million in 2015 to $6.8 million in 2017, the newspaper reported.

“I did my best when I worked for the city,” Samir Goow, whose part-time city salary was $29,000, told the newspaper. “It’s unfortunate that the medical bills were higher than they should have been. But I’m not being treated fairly at all.”

Samir Goow also worked as risk manager for the Paterson Board of Education and added the same three medical providers to the school district’s workers' compensation program in 2017, according to a state audit. More than half the district’s medical payments for workers' compensation last year went to the three firms, the audit showed.

The school district also suspended Goow in February after the cost irregularities came to light. An investigation did not find any evidence of impropriety, but the case has been turned over to the New Jersey Attorney General's office for possible prosecution.

Last year, city officials praised Goow after his investigations exposed alleged fraud by employees accused of pursuing bogus workers' compensation claims. Under Goow, the number of workers' compensation claims dropped, but the overall costs of the cases rose substantially, according to public records, the newspaper reported.