Spine surgeon Joseph Weinstein, DO, has been barred from seeing patients with workers’ compensation claims by the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board, Newsday reported Aug. 20.
Dr. Weinstein’s renewal application with the board was rejected in April, the report said. He’s one of several orthopedic surgeons named in a racketeering lawsuit filed in the New York Eastern District Court in Brooklyn.
Surgeons named in the lawsuit were accused of conspiring with medical providers, lawyers and others to collect millions in insurance payouts for false accident claims. In one instance, Dr. Weinstein is accused of performing a spinal fusion on a patient in an alleged workplace accident without trying conservative treatments first. Dr. Weinstein argued the surgery was needed since the patient fell 50 to 60 feet from a scaffold, Newsday reported.
Dr. Weinstein and his attorney didn’t return messages asking for comment left by Newsday. Records show he appealed the board’s decision, but that move was rejected by the board.
The board’s denial letter said Dr. Weinstein’s preferred course of treatment was found to be “clinically deficient” twice as often as the average medical provider in the workers’ compensation system.
The board told Newsday that it “takes allegations of fraud in the system seriously and investigates them with diligence.”
