Minnesota Commerce Department Announces Additional Charges, Defendants in Chiropractic Insurance Fraud Conspiracies

ST. PAUL, Minn., Aug. 17 -- The Minnesota Department of Commerce issued the following news release:

Minnesota Commerce Commissioner Mike Rothman announced that additional federal charges have been filed in connection with alleged health care fraud conspiracies totaling more than $20 million.

Following the indictments of 12 defendants in December 2016, a federal grand jury has added four defendants and additional mail fraud and wire fraud charges in connection with parallel conspiracies that executed schemes to fraudulently bill insurance companies for millions of dollars.

The case, which is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office, is the result of an investigation conducted by the Minnesota Commerce Fraud Bureau and the FBI. Additional assistance was provided by the Minneapolis Police Department, Saint Paul Police Department, Minnesota State Patrol and Homeland Security Investigations.

The Commerce Department investigates insurance fraud and regulates the insurance industry in Minnesota.

Newly charged in the case are four chiropractors:

Adam J. Burke, of Minneapolis; charged with one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and 12 counts of mail fraud

Preston E. Forthun, of Bloomington; charged with one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and 13 counts of mail fraud

Huy Ngoc Nguyen, of Brooklyn Park; charged with one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, six counts of mail fraud and five counts of wire fraud

Angela A. Schulz, of Chaska; charged with one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and 16 counts of mail fraud

Under the Minnesota No-Fault Automobile Insurance Act, auto insurance policies must include a personal injury protection provision (PIP). The PIP provision carries a minimum coverage amount of $40,000 for expenses resulting from injuries sustained in an automobile accident, $20,000 of which may be used for medical expenses.

According to the charging documents, at various times between at least 2010 and 2016, these four defendants and other Doctors of Chiropractic engaged in schemes with others to defraud automobile insurance companies.

The fraud schemes, which were nearly identical but largely carried out independently of one another, involved the submission of fraudulent no-fault insurance claims.

The chiropractors involved in the scheme would submit claims and receive reimbursements for chiropractic services that either were not medically necessary or were never rendered, but were instead designed to fraudulently maximize reimbursement from the patients' automobile insurance companies.

According to the charging documents, in order to get more patients to come to chiropractic appointments for treatment they did not need, the chiropractors would make illegal payments to "runners," who typically made upwards of $1,000 per automobile accident patient in exchange for bringing the patient into the chiropractor's office.

Runners were often not paid, or paid only in part, until after the patient had attended a minimum threshold number of treatment sessions. In order to keep the patients coming back for medically unnecessary appointments, the runners often paid illegal kickbacks to the patients.

In addition to the runners charged in the December 2016 indictments, Mimi Doan, of Maple Grove; Okwuchukwu Jideofor, of Oakdale; Qunicy Chettupally, of Brooklyn Park; and Mukhtar Hassan, or Minneapolis, are now charged for their roles in the conspiracies.

Permalink: http://mn.gov/commerce/media/news/index.jsp?id=17-308439