Modesto City Schools Involved In Payola Scam

Online, November 14, 2012 (Newswire.com) - According to anonymous sources from the inside, Modesto City Schools and their new worker's comp insurance company Pegasus are involved in a payola scam. Individuals at the top of both organizations have been paying off the agreed upon doctors they refer to in San Francisco in worker's comp cases in order to sway these cases in favor of the California school giant.

Tipsters are coming forward with names of those believed to be involved, one is Maryanne McCleary, Superintendant of Modesto City Schools. This would render many cases useless as employees will come up short, or win nothing at all, although Modesto City Schools and Pegasus have been settling quickly, offering small sums to cordon off any further pay-out.

This has apparently been going on since the new company Pegasus Insurance was brought onboard this summer 2012. Sources say the reason has to do with Modesto City Schools' belief that they are paying out too much in worker's compensation cases each year. So they opted for a new insurance company to fix that.

The way it works is an injured employee of Modesto City Schools applies for worker's comp in an insurance claim of their own insurance, usually supplied to employees by their union Modesto Teacher's Association. The employee's insurance or attorney would work together with Pegasus and Modesto City Schools to find a doctor they both agree upon to see the employee patient. This doctor, usually in San Francisco, would be paid off by Modesto City Schools, possibly through Pegasus, to move the doctor to decide the patient is less than 50% work related, causing a victory for Modesto City Schools.

According to head of MTA, Doug Burton, Modesto City Schools has been long guilty of "creative book keeping" and usually never supports their employees, having a hostile relationship with both employees and Modesto Teacher's Association. At the moment, "both are locked in agreement disputes at the table" and may not solve the problem of cost of living pay raises this year, as it has been going on for several years without pay increases.

Employees of the school giant often complain and sign grievances against the administration, only to be frustrated and non supported, but only talk anonymously for fear of retaliation. MTA has noted that this is a common occurance.

More information as this story unfolds further.