BILL NUMBER: S4874
SPONSOR: FAHY
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the penal law and the criminal procedure law, in
relation to criminalizing acting as a runner or soliciting or employing
a runner to procure patients or clients
 
PURPOSE:
Creates the crime of unlawful procurement of clients in three degrees.
Criminalizes acting as a "runner" or soliciting or employing a "runner"
to procure patients or clients.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 adds three new subdivisions to section 176.00 of the Penal Law
defining "provider," "public media," "runner," and "pecuniary benefit."
Section 2 adds three new Penal Law sections, 176.75, 176.80, and 176.85,
for Unlawful Procurement of Clients, Patients or Customers in the Third,
Second, and First Degrees.
Section 3 amends the definition of "criminal act" in Enterprise
Corruption to include the two new crimes that are felonies.
Section 4 amends the definition of "designated offense" in the eaves-
dropping and video surveillance warrants provision to include the two
new crimes that are felonies.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
Other states have for many years criminalized acting as a runner or
soliciting or employing a runner to procure patients or clients. It is
long overdue in New York, a state with one of the highest average car
insurance rates in the nation.
This legislation is patterned on the New Jersey runner law and on the
federal Medicare-Medicaid Anti-Kickback Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1320a-7b, both
of which make it a crime intentionally to pay for patient referrals.
Such a measure is crucial in New York as a way to prevent fraudulent
activity by drying up the supply of patients for clinics and other
providers whose entire purpose is to bill no-fault insurance carriers
without regard to the legitimacy of any particular claim. The use of
runners is unfortunately common in the New York metropolitan area.
A "runner" is a person who is paid for each patient they send to a frau-
dulent provider. This can be a very rich incentive for them. The provid-
ers commit insurance fraud by recruiting patients who do not need treat-
ment or were not in a car accident, exaggerating illnesses, or, as is
all too common, staging accidents. Without the runners, the patient
supply for fraudulent clinics would dry up, and New York residents could
save tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars.
This bill would criminalize runners or providers who use runners and
make it either a class A misdemeanor, class E felony, or class D felony,
depending on the aggregate value of the pecuniary benefit or the number
of times a person works as a runner.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2016-2017: S7051
2018-2019:S424
2023-2024:S3556/A3640
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
On the first of November after becoming law.

Statutes affected:
S4874: 176.00 penal law, 460.10 penal law, 460.10(1) penal law, 700.05 criminal procedure law, 700.05(8) criminal procedure law