ROCHESTER, NY—U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Christopher Fronczak, 37, of Victor, N.Y., who was convicted of health care fraud, was sentenced to five years’ probation by U.S. District Court Judge Charles J. Siragusa. Judge Siragusa also ordered Fronczak to pay $199,999 in restitution to Excellus BlueCross BlueShield (“Excellus”).
Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard A. Resnick, who is handling the case, stated that during the years 2005 and 2010, the defendant, while a Doctor of Chiropractic Medicine, executed a scheme to defraud Excellus BlueCross BlueShield (“Excellus”), a health care benefit program, by submitting reimbursement claims for services he did not perform.
Part of the scheme to defraud involved chiropractic services the defendant provided to college football players and other athletes at St. John Fisher College. While the defendant provided treatments known as adjustments to the athletes at the college after practices, which took appropriately five minutes for each, Fronczak submitted insurance claims to Excellus for more expensive treatments which were not provided, including spinal manipulation, electrical stimulation, mechanical traction, manual therapy techniques, and an office visit. The fraudulent insurance claims submitted to Excellus for the football players were virtually identical for each player.
In another case, a 45-year-old patient was treated for shoulder pain once or twice a month. This patient never received mechanical traction and most visits would lasted approximately 10 minutes. Despite this, Fronczak submitted claims for numerous visits which never took place and for services which were never rendered, including application of hot and cold packs, mechanical traction, electrical stimulation, manual therapy techniques, and spinal manipulation.
During the years 2005 through 2009, the defendant was also hired by the Crossman Corporation as an independent contractor to provide Chiropractic services to their employees. The Crossman Corporation paid the defendant approximately $67,000 for the chiropractic services provided by the defendant to the employees. The defendant billed the employees’ insurance companies as well.
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