United Airlines diverted the airplane to Las Vegas.   But Vogel, 62, died before the plane was able to land in Vegas. 

Jay Allen Vogel, M.D., had been charged with 44 counts of insurance fraud and had been arrested during the Spring of 2008.  Vogel had been arrested at his Newport Beach home in front of his family. 

Zenith Insurance Company had sued Vogel in a civil suit that accused him and his clinics of sending $2 million in fraudulent billings.  The lawsuit named Vogel, his business partner, psychologist Nelson Flores, the Orthopedic Injury Center in Irvine, California, and his Oakland and San Jose, California, clinics. 

The lawsuit alleged that 60% of the billings to Zenith were for illegally dispensed pharmaceuticals.  It further alleged that Vogel and Flores created false and misleading medical reports, made false statements to support bogus claims, and “upcoded” their bills in order to receive payments for more extensive medical treatment than provided.    Vogel settled the lawsuit against himself for an undisclosed amount recently, but the suit against Nelson Flores and the clinics remains to date.

The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office filed fraud charges against Vogel in 2008 alleging the Bay Area Multi-Specialty Group in Oakland and San Jose Injury Medical Center were medical mills that specialized in producing volumes of fraudulent billings of phony treatments sent to work comp claims departments demanding payment.

Vogel and his wife had to sell homes in the Lake Tahoe area and in Hawaii.  They also put their Newport Beach home up for sale for $5.75 million.  That property has not yet sold.

Vogel’s body will remain in Las Vegas until the issuance of an official death certificate, and will then be transported to the Fort Lauderdale area for burial.