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| | Ohio Chiropractor Ordered To Pay Nearly $400,000 In Restitution For Workers’ Compensation Fraud. Voluntarily Decertifies Himself As An Ohio Workers’ Comp Health Care Provider.
By Lonce LaMon - September 8, 2014
An Ohio chiropractor was ordered to pay $394,021.03 in restitution after he pled guilty on August 22nd 2014 in Franklin County Court of Common Pleas to one count of workers’ compensation fraud. The case was prosecuted by the Ohio Attorney General’s office.
Michael L. Brown, the chiropractor, was seeing patients at 1257 E. Canal Street in Nelsonville. The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation’s Special Investigations Department received allegations that Brown was billing for services not rendered, billing patient claims for dates of service when patients were not in the office, and billing for times when his office was closed.
“We suspected there was a problem after multiple individuals contacted BWC (Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation) to report Mr. Brown’s fraud schemes,” said BWC’s administrator and CEO Steve Buehrer. “Medical providers have an extremely important job of evaluating the condition of injured workers and determining whether they are able to return to work. We place our trust in them, and unfortunately, it appears Mr. Brown was not focused on providing the best care for his patients.”
Multiple interviews by the BWC Special Investigations Department confirmed the allegations and that Brown controlled billing for the office. In June 2010, numerous pieces of evidence that substantiated the allegations were seized from Brown’s office.
Records showed that patients were not at his office on days that Brown billed their claims for treatment; documents showed that multiple patient claims were billed on dates the office was closed; evidence was also discovered that Brown fabricated the amount of treatment patients received in order to receive higher payments for services.
According to an Athens News article dated Friday, August 29th 2014, a phone call to Michael L. Brown’s business from one of their staff members reached a recorded message which stated, “Thank you for calling Active Healthcare of Nelsonville. This office is permanently closed. However, Drs. Richard Maynard, Sr. and Richard Maynard, Jr., will be coming to this office in September to begin treating patients. They will be scheduling patients around the first week in September.”
There is no information in the August 29th 2014 press release issued by the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation suggesting that the Maynard doctors had any involvement in or connection to Michael L. Brown’s activities.
At the time of the investigation, the business Brown worked for was called ABC Chiropractic. According to The Athens News article, a website provided for ABC Chiropractic, www.thebackandspinecenter.com, no longer works. So, it appears the business has been permanently closed.
In addition to the $394,021.03 in restitution, Michael L. Brown was sentenced to five years of probation. If he fails to comply with his probation, he could be sentenced to nine months in jail. Brown also voluntarily decertified himself as an Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation health-care provider.
journalist Lonce LaMon, lonce@adjuster.com; sources August 29th 2014 press release from the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation; August 29th 2014 article from The Athens News.
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