Patients trooped to celebrity skin doctor David Morrow, sold on the free cosmeticsurgeries he proffered.

Insurance will pay everything, the Rancho Mirage, Calif.,cosmetic surgeon promised. Patients believed Morrow, and hisscalpel swung like a hyper-energized samurai sword. The gambitworked. Morrow ransacked health insurers, billing them for $50million. At least $25 million cascaded into his bank accounts.

Yet something was wrong. Insurance generally doesn't pay forbeautifying bodies. It's elective surgery, normally withoutinsurable medical need. Morrow camouflaged the plastic surgeries ina deep forest of false diagnoses.

Tummy tucks magically became insurable hernia repairs orabdominal reconstructions. Morrow billed nose jobs as fixingdeviated septums. Breast lifts were surgeries for “tuberous breastdeformities.”

Morrow also trumped up test results, medical notes and surgicalrecords to back up his fantasy world. He even covered up the textof records for a patient's “abdominoplasty” (tummy tuck)— hand-writing “umbilical & ventral hernias” on top of theoriginal wording.

Some patients were pressured to get surgeries they didn't wantin exchange for “free” cosmetic upgrades. Patients still believedMorrow played by the rules, giving them honest surgery and lodginghonest insurance billings.

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Morrow could bill insurers anywhere from $150,00 for asingle surgery to $700,000 for multiple procedures. (Photo:Shutterstock)

Make believe surgeries

On top of concealing cosmetic operations, Morrow also billedinsurers for phantom surgeries. He stole patient names, medicalinformation and signatures — their medical identities — andinvented records that claimed successful surgeries the patientsmedically needed.

Morrow billed up to $150,750 for a single surgery, and as muchas $700,000 if he foisted several procedures on a patient. Sadlyfor some patients, he botched their procedures. They ended updisfigured or were forced to live with ongoing discomfort.

Insurance money and beautified bodies made Morrow a wealthycelebrity surgeon. The now-shuttered Morrow Institute was his hubof, literally, operations. His former website called him “One ofthe top cosmetic surgeons in the world for skin and facialrejuvenation.”

Sharing the wealth

Pinterest postings are still active. They're a self-congratulating trope to status, wealth andopulent living. Morrow created his own line of beauty cosmetics,and claimed the world's first laser face lift. He and his wife,Linda, founded a Jewish day school, and donated heavily to thesymphony and other cultural causes.

They spent comfortable off hours in their spacious $9.5 millionmansion, and rumbled the roads in a fleet of cars.

The voluminous billings finally caught up with Morrow.Investigators and prosecutors dug into his records and unraveledthe deception. Morrow pleaded guilty in federal court. He wasscheduled for sentencing, except for one problem. He and Lindabolted before a court appearance and went on the run.

They'd sold the mansion and cars, and wired millions of dollarsinto secret bank accounts. Nobody knows where the Morrows are,although federal investigators are still hunting for them. Thecourt handed Morrow 20 years in federal prison, inabsentia, in late September 2017.

Related: FBI widens insurance fraud probe of South Floridaattorneys

The Morrows lived in a $9.5 million house and benefited fromtheir illegal activities until prosecutors caught up with them.(Photo: iStock)

Cosmetic surgery bills well

Rebranding cosmetic surgery to steal insurance money has alonger history.

Arthur Kissel and his wife Sonia LaFontaine rancosmetic-surgery clinics in New York City, Toronto and otherlocales. They charged tummy tucks and liposuction as hernia repairsand lesion removals. Patients complained they used instruments thatlooked like soldering irons and scissors.

Joel Cunningham wanted to slim down so he could enter New YorkPolice Department officer training. He died of a heart attack whileundergoing liposuction.

Kissel and LaFontaine each received 10 years in federal prisonin New York for charging insurers for cosmetic surgeries disguisedas medical procedures and for mail fraud.

Dr. Lawrence Saks tried similar gambits inTorrance, Calif. Face lifts and tummy tucks became medicalnecessities such as tumor removals and hernia repairs in an $87,000billing plot.

As for Morrow, the walls are closing in.

“After admitting guilt, he went on the lam in the hopes ofavoiding punishment that was sure to come,” Acting U.S. AttorneyLinda Brown said. “When he is taken into custody — and he willdefinitely be captured — he will serve the lengthy sentence hedeserves as a result of his greed and fraud.”

Dennis Jay ([email protected])is the executive director of the Coalition Against InsuranceFraud.

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