View this article online: https://www.claimsjournal.com/news/east/2004/01/26/36071.htm
New Jersey Attorney General Peter Harvey announced that a former Bergen County chiropractor has been sentenced to prison and ordered to pay more than $15,000 in restitution and fines following his conviction on insurance fraud charges for billing an insurance company for chiropractic services that were never provided.
According to Vaughn McKoy, director, Division of Criminal Justice and Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Greta Gooden-Brown, Richard Finder, 47 of Bergen County, was sentenced by Bergen County Superior Court Judge William Meehan to serve 180 days in the Bergen County Jail, ordered to pay restitution to the defrauded insurance company, and to pay a $15,000 civil insurance fraud fine pursuant to the Insurance Fraud Prevention Act.
Gooden Brown said that Finder had pled guilty to a criminal Accusation which charged Health Care Claims Fraud. At the Nov. 7, 2003 guilty plea hearing, Finder reportedly admitted that from January through August, 2000, he submitted more than $1,260 in fraudulent bills to the Cigna Insurance Company for chiropractic treatments that were never rendered. Gooden Brown noted that Finder was previously indicted via a State Grand Jury in April, 1998, on similar insurance fraud charges. The earlier indictment charged Finder with theft by deception for submitting more than $42,000 in fraudulent billings to 11 insurance companies.
Finder pled guilty in Nov. 1998, reportedly admitting that he submitted fraudulent billings which included payments for chiropractic claims covering visits that never occurred; double billing patients’ insurers; billing insurers using false patient names; and billing for treatments occurring before a patient’s initial visit. Finder was sentenced by Judge Meehan on Jan. 8, 1999 to three years probation, ordered to pay $18,000 in restitution and to pay a $20,000 civil insurance fraud fine.
Finder’s chiropractic license was suspended for a period of three years with six months of active suspension in April, 1999, by the Board of Chiropractic Examiners. On Dec. 5, 2002, Finder’s chiropractic license was revoked for violating the April, 1999 order and was assessed a $50,000 fine.