People who carry Virginia health insurance plans are affected every year by people who make fraudulent claims with the hope of obtaining extra cash.

Virginia State Police public relations representative Pamela Jewel spoke to citizens at the JABA/Greene County Community Senior Center in late March about the dangers of insurance fraud and how to recognize and report fraudulent claims, reported the Greene County Record.

Jewel spoke about all types of fraud, but specified that health insurance greatly affects consumers, the source said. She told seniors that businesses can often be the ones making false claims, citing a doctor who charged patients for surgeries that never happened, resulting in insurance companies losing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The Greene County Record explained the average Virginia family pays approximately $1,000 annually due to fraudulent insurance claims.

"We all pay for insurance fraud with higher premiums and increased costs of good and services," Special Agent JS Pruitt explained to Virginia's Stamp Out Fraud program after a perpetrator was caught in 2011.

Christina Dickens was charged in September with 41 counts of fraud, after forging doctors' signatures and falsely reporting cancer treatments to her insurer. Dickens was able to obtain $120,000 from the insurance agency before she was arrested.