Columbus, OH – Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation Administrator/CEO Steve Buehrer recently announced that two Ohio chiropractors have been sentenced to pay nearly $179,000 in combined restitution to Medicaid and the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC).
Jeffrey Stychno, DC, and Michael Frasca, DC, must each pay $69,781 to BWC and $19,715 to Medicaid after they were each convicted of fraudulent billing practices during their time as co-owners of Integrated Health in Warren, Ohio.
“Our investigation found that these doctors purposely double-billed for patient appointments, billed for non-existent appointments, and even billed for time spent out of the office,” said Attorney General DeWine. “We are pleased that the state is getting that money back so that it can be put towards legitimate medical costs.”
“We like to believe the health of Ohio’s injured workers is the foremost concern among our medical professionals, yet fraud among some in the medical provider community is an unfortunate reality,” said Buehrer. “Apparently motivated by greed, these providers appeared to be more concerned with increasing their earnings then the wellbeing of their patients.”
The convictions stem from multiple incidents of double-billing and billing for services not rendered and/or services not authorized between November 2006 to December 2009.
Stychno pleaded guilty this week to one count of Theft and one count of Workers’ Compensation Fraud and was also sentenced to serve five years of community control with a 12-month maximum suspended sentence. In April, Frasca pleaded guilty to charges of Medicaid Fraud and Workers’ Compensation Fraud and was sentenced to one year of community control.
The case was a joint investigation involving BWC’s Special Investigations Department and Attorney General DeWine’s Health Care Fraud Section. Attorneys with the Health Care Fraud Section also prosecuted the case.
Source: Ohio AG’s Office