Two institutions intimately related to Fort Worth’s finest have traded allegations of wrongdoing.
Dr. Jon Schweitzer informed The Dallas Express that Acting Police Chief Robert Alldredge requested his assistance in classifying some injured police officers in such a way that would require their health insurance to cover their injuries instead of utilizing workers’ compensation.
Schweitzer claims that this approach would constitute insurance fraud.
Alldredge is the Acting Police Chief because Fort Worth Police Chief Neil Noakes is retiring this spring and is currently on leave.
Alldredge did not respond to the specific allegations but said to DX in part, “While I am mindful that some matters may not be appropriate to discuss in a public forum, any concerns about the quality of health and wellness services provided to City Staff, including our first responders, is taken seriously. The best interests of our valuable employees and protecting City resources have always guided my actions.”
Alldredge shared a letter that was apparently sent to Schweitzer in May 2024.
The letter indicated that the department was in the middle of a “wellness and recovery initiative for our employees” and that an “assessment of existing medical-related programs and services was conducted, including activities of providers within the City’s BlackStone network of worker’s compensation medical service providers.”
The assessment found some unflattering things about Southwest Sports & Spine, where Schweitzer is one of the principal physicians, along with Dr. Steven Simmons.
“During the assessment, some activities were revealed about Southwest Sports and Spine’s business practice with the City of Fort Worth’s Workers Compensation program that caused the Police Department some concern, including not returning police officers to work timely.”
The letter informed Schweitzer that his practice was on probation for the next year and must abide by a certain set of expectations.
The expectations numbered more than three pages. However, the first stated that “The Police Department supports all medical providers who are approved under the City’s Blackstone network equally. No provider shall represent themselves in a manner that leads an employee or medical provider to believe they are the department’s preferred or sole provider.”
The two men agree on the timeline, both stating that the trouble started around a year ago.
Schweitzer noted that the issues first started to simmer when he was working to get an “extension” for an injured officer that would allow the officer to get “disability while they’re recovering, if they’ve had surgery that warrants additional time for recovery.” He stated that this set off a battle between the city bureaucracy and the officer to get the municipality to accept the extension, something Schweitzer says had been granted to three officers before. After some back and forth between the officer, the city council, HR and Schweitzer, the extension was accepted.
“Then I got a letter from Chief Alldredge stating that I do too much fighting for patients. That when they get what they call a PLN 11, a plain letter notice, [I’ve got] to instruct patients to use their health insurance and not challenge those because it costs [the city] money,” Schweitzer recalled. “And I wrote him a nice response back saying that was illegal– it’s insurance fraud– You cannot use health insurance for a work-related injury if you know it’s work-related.”
Schweitzer said he even cited the state code that he believes supports his position. According to Schweitzer, Alldredge apparently also told the doctor that he needed to remove symbols that associated the physician with the department, including “thin blue line patches on my uniform” and a sticker on my building.
The documents given to DX by Alldredge do not detail the intervening period between the start of the probation period and late January 2025. The two tellings of the deterioration between FWPD and Southwest Sports & Spine meet again with a January 28, 2025 letter from Blackstone to Schweitzer and Simmons that reads: “This letter is to notify you that the BlackStone City of Fort Worth physician panel, established under Chapter 504 of the Texas Labor Code, is exercising the termination clause of the joinder agreement.”
The letter later reads, “You will be removed from the City of Fort Worth’s provider panel effective 90 days from the date of this letter, and the effective termination date will be April 28, 2025. If you receive requests for treatment by injured workers from the City of Fort Worth, please advise them you are no longer accepting new patients.”
Schweitzer denies any allegation that he does too much for his patients who are police officers. To support this notion, he points to his record as an expert witness in cases involving injured police officers: “I’ve won 94% of all cases since 2014 when we’ve gone to court.”
DX previously reported that several injured FWPD officers denied having other good options outside of Southwest Sports & Spine. One retired Field Sergeant, Diane Sims, called Simmons and Schweitzer a “godsend” and said they provided her real relief from a back injury she sustained in the line of duty. She described working with other doctors within the provider panel before Southwest Sports & Spine was added, noting that it was a bureaucratic nightmare where care was delayed and misdiagnosis was frequent.
At the time of our interviews, Sims and the other officers did not know what they would do after FWPD cuts ties with Southwest Sports & Spine later this month.
DX also reported that as recently as 2021, the relationship between the city and Southwest Sports & Spine was extremely positive. During that time, the then-assistant HR director for Risk Management was helping Simmons put together a presentation so he could show others how Simmons and Schweitzer had saved the city money with stem cell treatments.