Grinberg: Psychiatrist Goes Down for Comp Fraud

Tuesday, February 15, 2022 | 0

For those of you brooding over Valentines’ Day, frustrated with a broken heart or an evil ex, perhaps I can brighten your day with a story of justice being done.

Gregory Grinberg

Here we are again, and I want you to check your files for the name of George Demetrius Karalis.

Who is Dr. Karalis? Well, he’s the latest exhibit in my case for why we must be suspicious and thorough of every player in workers’ compensation, even the doctors.

Karalis was a psychiatrist in San Francisco who recently pleaded guilty to workers’ compensation fraud and was ordered to pay $1.4 million in restitution and serve 120 days in jail. As alleged, he coached federal workers’ compensation claimants on what to say in order to get benefits to which they were not entitled.

Although the fraud pertained primarily to federal employees, it might be worth it to check to see if any of your treatment reports or liens or even agreed medical evaluator reports are based on his opinions. 

So, are you keeping an eye on your repeat-player med-legal and treating physicians?  Are there parts of the report that you could swear are copy-pastes of other reports? Do your claimants go into their visit one way and come out with completely new symptoms and complaints? These are akin to a Soviet military parade: lots of red flags.

Perhaps noticing such patterns is a good reason to investigate further.

Gregory Grinberg is managing partner of Gale, Sutow & Associates’ S.F. Bay South office and a certified specialist in workers’ compensation law. This post is reprinted with permission from Grinberg’s WCDefenseCA blog.