Rombom v. Interboro Mut. Indem. Ins. Co

In Rombom v. Interboro Mut. Indem. Ins. Co. (170 Misc 2d 846 [Civ Ct, Queens County 1996]) Dr. Howard Rombom, a psychologist, delegated work to a psychometrician, Jennifer Gambino, consisting of administering psychological tests to a patient. The services performed by the psychometrician were not performed in the doctor's offices, Dr. Rombom was physically not present when the tests were being administered, and the essential contact between Dr. Rombom and Ms. Gambino consisted of one telephone call. Despite the brevity of contact, Dr. Rombom felt unconstrained to submit no-fault insurance bills of $ 957.60, based upon eight hours of "work" billed at his time of $ 119.70 per hour. Dr. Rombom was paying Ms. Gambino, however, only $ 25, netting him a hefty profit. On top of all these facts, despite the eight hours of work, the test results and psychological evaluations were never made known to the patient.