We have repeatedly discussed financial and other fraud by (mostly US chiropractors, e.g.:
- Medicare fraud by chiropractors costs taxpayers millions
- Chiropractor accused of Medicare fraud exceeding $1 million
- A $2.6M Insurance Fraud by Chiropractors and Doctors?
- Fraud and sex offences by chiropractors
- Doctor gets 7-year sentence for multimillion-dollar fraud scheme
- The Dark Side of Chiropractic Care
Many of these cases are impressive in their illegality or even viciousness. Yet, this one takes the biscuit, I think:
It has been reported that a former chiropractor will be spending a long time behind bars following his conviction for running a colossal workers’ compensation fraud that bagged him $150 million over several years. Peyman Heidary has been sentenced to 54 years and 8 months in state prison on April 12, and will also have to shell out more than $23 million in fines, according to the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office.
Convicted in January of 68 counts including insurance fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering, Heidary’s scheme involved the control of fake health clinics and law firms from 2009 to 2014. He manipulated the workers’ comp system to exploit legitimately injured people and run up unnecessary treatments to inflate insurance billings, according to a Riverside County jury.
District Attorney Mike Hestrin made clear the gravity of Heidary’s exploitation: “The California workers’ compensation system is designed to help injured workers get back on their feet without ruining them financially,” Hestrin stated, adding “Sophisticated criminals like Mr. Heidary don’t just steal money, they take advantage of innocent patients”. The trial also heard from one such patient, Denise Rivera, a worker injured on the job who despite being promised care, was left untreated.
Originally pegged at $98 million, the fraud was ultimately revealed to have caused about $150 million in damages. Judge Charles Koosed, overseeing the sentencing, called out Heidary’s greed, exploiting his detailed knowledge of the workers’ compensation landscape, Judge Koosed noted, “’[Heidary] took advantage of that knowledge based on greed.”
Heidary used the sham law firm to recruit thousands of legitimately injured patients, referring them to his network of clinics to create unnecessary billing. One of the injured workers, Denise Rivera, slipped and fell while working as a certified nurse assistant for special needs children. Ms. Rivera testified that she was recruited into Heidary’s scheme, but never received any effective treatment. “[Heidary’s employees] released me,” Rivera told jurors. “They told me … basically I was okay. My knee was okay.” When asked during the trial if her knee actually was OK, she simply responded, “No.”
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It will probably not take long for some chiro to post a comment pointing out that dishonest chiropractors are extremely rare exceptions. Most are law-abiding and behave ethically, he/she will insist. It will then be useless, of course, to counter that, in fact, there is plenty of evidence that dishonesty is rife amongst chiropractors and more frequent than with other healthcare professionals. They will not accept that and would like me to withdraw the allegation.
Such arguments often remind me of the Labour politician, Dennis Skinner, who once stated in the UK Parliament: “Half the Tories opposite are crooks.” When the Speaker insisted he should retract this remark, he responded, “OK, half the Tories opposite aren’t crooks.
7 Responses to Former chiropractor sentenced to 54 years and 8 months imprisonment
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@Edzard
Yesterday Frass, today this guy, tomorrow …?
Your coining of SCAM as an acronym becomes more appropriate by the day, as it would appear out that its gullible customers are being misled, deceived and defrauded in every conceivable way.
Which of course is to be expected, given that it concerns fake healthcare dispensed by people with fake knowledge, who nevertheless ask real money for their useless ‘services’. In other words: people contemplating a career in for instance chiropractic or homeopathy must be prepared to deal with the inevitable cognitive dissonance – and this is usually achieved by convincing themselves that they are Right, even when the overwhelming medical and scientific consensus says that they are very much wrong.
This chiropractor was guilty of workers’ compensation fraud, but the USA federal government has accused every Medicare insurer of fraud. They are liable for billions of dollars of compensation.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/08/upshot/medicare-advantage-fraud-allegations.html?ugrp=c&unlocked_article_code=1.lE0.TP85.UHsM0bgS6VO9&smid=url-share
1. Dishonest clinicians should be charged and punished I don’t care what their training is.
2. “there is plenty of evidence that dishonesty is rife amongst chiropractors and more frequent than with other healthcare professionals” and where is the evidence?
the evidence is, for instance, in my blog-posts cited in the current article.
QED
It should be pointed out that he didn’t do this alone.
The second indictment, case RIF1670176, charges chiropractor Touba Pakdel-Nabati, DOB: 8-3-78, of Costa Mesa; and doctors Quynam Nguyen, DOB: 6-11-58, of Orange; and Jason Yang, DOB: 2-24-66, of Pasadena, with 38 felony counts which include conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, making a false insurance claim, making a false statement for the purpose of obtaining workers comp benefits, and capping. https://blog.reduceyourworkerscomp.com/2016/10/riverside-calif-seven-indicted-on-comp-fraud-charges/
https://www.ocweekly.com/convicted-fraudster-dr-quynam-p-nguyen-faces-medical-board-discipline/
https://www.businessinsurance.com/article/00010101/NEWS08/912313839/Psychiatrist-convicted-of-fraud-suspended-from-comp-system
Good. The guy deserves to be punished.
But what I’d be equally pleased to see is chiropractors (& other bogus “healthcare” practitioners) busted for the harm they inflict on their customers – directly by their quack interventions & indirectly by keeping sick people from seeking legitimate treatment by actual health professionals.
I once posed as a prospective customer in response to a DC’s advertisement for a free consultation. He asked for a list of the medications I was taking and then asked me if I wanted to keep taking pills for the rest of my life. The inference was that pills were bad for me & that he could help by providing the chiropractic alternative. No, of course I don’t WANT to “take pills for the rest of my life,” but I’ll happily continue doing so if they have the desired effect.