New Orleans chiropractor sentenced to 7 years for $2.3M health care fraud scheme

A New Orleans chiropractor who bilked Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana out of $2.3 million to bankroll luxury shopping, travel and gambling was sentenced Friday to seven years in federal prison, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

In April, a federal jury convicted Benjamin Tekippe on six counts of health care fraud and one count of wire fraud and ordered him to pay $753,794 in restitution.

"While the defendant lounged on a beach in Aruba or sat incarcerated in a jail cell ... he led insurance companies... to believe he was right here ...in Louisiana, personally performing chiropractic adjustments on his patients," federal prosecutor Samantha Usher said in her opening remarks in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana on March 24. "The insurance company paid out and ultimately funded the defendant's lavish lifestyle."

Tekippe, 40, lured patients to his Metairie and Westbank clinics with promises of a free massage, court documents state. Some he recruited from parade routes, others from his personal life. At Metairie Chiropractic & Rehab, patients were treated to hourlong massages with spa-like elements including music, coconut oil and mood lighting.

"Although that may sound relaxing and wonderful, it was not a medical service," Usher said.

Tekippe billed insurance companies for additional services, including spinal manipulation, electrical stimulation, mechanical traction and therapeutic exercises — most of which he never performed. Of the $2.3 million he billed, he pocketed $740,000, according to the Department of Justice.

After a BCBSLA audit prompted by the number of massage therapy codes billed at the practice, Tekippe instructed his staff to handwrite fake medical records, which he submitted to the insurance company to back up his billing.

Tekippe fired a massage therapist who refused to forge notes about patients she'd never seen. He falsely claimed his clinic was closed during the pandemic to collect $12,952 in unemployment benefits while billing for chiropractic services. He also did not disclose to the Louisiana Board of Chiropractic Examiners the nine arrests he accrued from 2002-19.