North Dakota’s Insurance Commissioner said his office has seen an uptick in insurance fraud cases.
Jon Godfread said whenever the economy dips a bit, fraud spikes upward.
"We're seeing more, and I don't know if it's more because we're seeing more reported, or there actually is more," Godfread said. "We have a significant caseload for the three investigators right now."
Godfread said a lot of the fraud is in the health care space."
"That seems to be a hotbed right now for it," Godfread said.
Godfread said in addition to those three fraud investigators, he also has one investigator focused on insurance agents. And Godfread said he has a number of memorandums of understanding with local states’ attorneys to help them prosecute those crimes. He said these are crimes that affect all North Dakotans.
"We pay higher premiums because the more fraud there is, the more we have to pay in insurance premiums," Godfread said. "So this has been a really good program we have initiated, in getting an attorney out there to help prosecute those crimes."
Godfread said the investigators are out there, watching and doping their work.
"We want to make sure people know that insurance fraud is not a 'victimless crime,'" Godfread said. If you're out there committing fraud, you will be prosecuted for it."
Godfread said it's all about keeping insurance premiums down for the rest of the public.
"That's what our fraud investigation unit really does," Godfread said.