A 43-year-old Marietta chiropractor who lured patients to his chain of clinics by giving away gift cards, frozen turkeys and raffle tickets for luxury cars was sentenced to prison Friday after he admitted bilking insurance companies out of more than $6.5 million, federal prosecutors said.
Andrew L. Sokol was ordered to serve to 4 years and 9 months, and three years of supervised released. Chief U.S. District Judge Julie E. Carnes also ordered him to pay $6,599,456 in restitution.
Sokol pleaded guilty last October to charges of conspiracy to commit health care fraud. He admitted fraudulently submitting millions of dollars in insurance claims to Blue Cross Blue Shield and other private insurers for physical therapy services that were never provided.
Sokol's wife, chiropractor Julie Weisberg, also was charged in the scheme. Those charges were dropped when Sokol pleaded guilty and asserted his spouse was not involved, said Patrick Crosby, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Atlanta.
U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said in a news release, “Frauds like these ultimately affect everyone – individuals, families, and communities – in higher premiums and higher service costs. The prison sentence imposed today shows that health care fraud is a serious crime."
Sokol was a licensed chiropractor who owned and operated WellnessOnechiropractic clinics in Marietta, Buckhead, Duluth, Vinings and other locations throughout metro Atlanta. The clinics offered massage, personal training and chiropractic services to patients.
Prosecutors said that Sokol targeted MBNA and Bank of America employees because their Blue Cross Blue Shield policies provided generous chiropractic and physical therapy insurance benefits.
To attract patients, Sokol offered gift cards for massage or chiropractic adjustments, restaurants and gasoline; frozen turkeys and pies at Thanksgiving and Christmas; gift bags containing vitamins and other medical supplies, and free catered lunches; and raffle tickets for a chance to win $5,000 or a BMW and Hummer. The chiropractor also sent out direct mailings and advertised on billboards along I-75.
He routinely waived patients’ co-payments and deductibles, and from January 2005 through September 2007 employed licensed medical doctors and physical therapists to bill massages as physical therapy, prosecutors said. In reality, massage therapists gave the massages.
“Several medical providers quit when they realized WellnessOne was billing insurers under their names for services they did not perform,” prosecutors said. “In addition to using false provider names and billing codes, Sokol directed that services be billed on different days and under different tax identification numbers to conceal the fraud from insurers.”
Also, beginning in 2006, Sokol had patients visit an Atlanta-area gym and then fraudulently billed those gym visits to insurers as physical therapy, prosecutors said. When that arrangement ended, Sokol had small gyms built in WellnessOne clinics and fraudulently billed personal training sessions to insurers as physical therapy.
The case was investigated by the FBI, IRS and U.S. Postal Service, and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Glenn D. Baker and Stephen H. McClain.
About the Author
