Woman charged with $85K insurance fraud

A Havre woman is in the court system facing charges she defrauded a national insurance company out of nearly $85,000 with fake claims among the payment of more claim benefits from the company in its Montana group plan.

Karla Ann Fisher, born in 1961, pleaded not guilty this week in state District Court in Havre to charges of insurance fraud or theft and forgery.

According to a charging document, Fisher took out a policy with the American Family Assurance Co., or AFLAC, May 1, 2006.

The company began auditing Fisher in 2014 on claims made from Aug. 19, 2011, through Dec. 12, 2013.

After contacting medical providers, an AFLAC claims specialist found some of the stays claimed by Fisher never occurred.

Fisher made a total of 31 claims on the policy, more than any other policyholder in AFLAC’s State of Montana Group Plan, the document says.

According to the document, the defendant admitted to an investigator that 25 of the 31 claims were false. She submitted $84,965 in false claims by altering old medical provider bills, the document says.