St. Louis County chiropractor and billing assistant admit health care fraud

Oct. 23--ST. LOUIS -- A St. Louis County chiropractor and the woman who did his billing pleaded guilty to federal charges Thursday and admitted involvement in a scheme to fraudulently sell orthotic boots that cost Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance companies over $2.2 million, federal prosecutors said.

Dr. Donald Havey, 54, sold orthotics through his companies: Spinal Decompression of Chesterfield, Senior Care Inc., Advanced Custom Orthotics Inc. and Missouri Custom Orthotics.

From 2009 to 2014, Havey used chiropractors to market a "Fall Prevention Program" to nursing homes in Missouri, Illinois and at least 10 other states, promising that "custom" orthotic boots would reduce falls by almost 20 percent. But the boots were not custom and the program was really intended just to sell boots that cost Medicare $2,400 to $2,600 and could cost patients $500 if they had no supplemental insurance, prosecutors said.

To conceal the number of boots that Havey's companies were selling, Havey used Susan Reno and her company, Pinnacle Billings and Collections, to submit false claims under several different companies, prosecutors said.

Havey pleaded guilty to one felony count of health care fraud and Reno, of St. Louis County, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor: submitting false reimbursement claims to Medicare. Both are scheduled to be sentenced in January.

Robert Patrick -- 314-621-5154

@rxpatrick on Twitter

[email protected]

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