Sunny Hostin’s husband seeking to settle medical fraud lawsuit, says attorney

Image shows the Dr. Emmanuel Hostin and his wife Sunny. — Dr. Emmanuel Hostin and his wife Sunny say a federal fraud lawsuit is without merit.

By John Hilton

The husband of longtime co-host of “The View,” Sunny Hostin, is among a group of doctors still negotiating to settle a massive medical fraud lawsuit in New York City.

Dr. Emmanuel Hostin was granted an extension Monday to file a response to the Dec. 17 lawsuit filed by American Transit Insurance Co., which insures taxi companies and Uber and Lyft drivers.

American Transit recently informed the court that it had settled with 141 of the 186 defendants named in the 698-page complaint. The insurer indicated that it expected to reach additional settlements soon.

Settlement discussions are ongoing, said Hostin’s attorney, Kurt Lundgren, calling the extension a mere formality.

“We have every expectation of resolving matters with American Transit on behalf of all of our clients,” said Lundgren, of Thwaites Lundgren & D’Arcy. “American Transit's attorneys recently gave us the courtesy of an extension of time to answer the complaint so as to continue discussions of resolution.”

Hostin’s response was due Monday, but Magistrate Judge James R. Cho’s granted the extension until March 12.

Lundgren is also representing Dr. Albert Graziosa, Dr. William B. Jones, as well as the clinics they practice from, according to a court document filed Friday.

American Transit alleges that Hostin, who owns Hostin Orthopaedics, performed surgeries at other ambulatory surgical centers and billed American Transit through each of those entities “in exchange for kickbacks and/or other compensation which were disguised as dividends or other cash distributions” for an investment Hostin has in Empire State ASC, the lawsuit claims.

Licensed to practice medicine in New York since August 2002, Emmanuel Hostin married Sunny in 1998 and has two children with the talk show host, a lawyer and former federal prosecutor.

On the offensive

The conciliatory tone from Lundgren is a departure from recent public statements from the Hostins. In a Jan. 13 story by the New York Post, Sunny Hostin said the couple had hired celebrity lawyer Mark Geragos and would be filing a countersuit against American Transit.

Her statement to the newspaper claimed the insurance company has a history of filing “frivolous lawsuits” and is using “my celebrity status to start a disgusting media smear campaign against my husband, which included me and our children.”

American Transit traces its complaint to New York’s no-fault law, which states that plaintiffs are required to pay for health service expenses that are “reasonably incurred as a result of injuries suffered by occupants of their insureds’ motor vehicles, pedestrians, and bicyclists,” the lawsuit says.

Enacted in 1974, the no-fault law requires insurers to compensate covered persons for “basic economic loss,” which includes medical costs, incidental costs, and lost earnings. Across the country, officials are taking a closer look at no-fault laws enacted during the 1970s.

Personal line auto insurers that insure personal or private passenger vehicles are required to provide benefits up to $50,000 per person. Commercial auto insurers are required to provide up to $200,000 per person.

“This has put a target on the backs of livery vehicles, and the insurance companies which insure them, for unsavory persons seeking to capitalize on payouts following injuries. In the aggregate, those abusing the No-Fault Law have racked up hundreds of millions in fraudulent payments, destabilized the livery insurance markets in New York City,” the lawsuit states.

The alleged fraud was led by a group of ambulatory surgical centers from 2009 to the present, the lawsuit claims. Injured people were first treated at clinic, then transferred to an ASCs for “orthopedic and/or pain management evaluations,” the lawsuit says.

InsuranceNewsNet Senior Editor John Hilton has covered business and other beats in more than 20 years of daily journalism. John may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @INNJohnH.