POST FALLS CHIROPRACTOR SENTENCED FOR HEALTH CARE FRAUD

Post Falls chiropractor Timothy Grothman will spend six months on home detention with electronic monitoring followed by another two-and-a-half-years on probation for defrauding health care benefit providers, U.S. Attorney Tom Moss announced today.

At the sentencing hearing Monday in federal court in Coeur d'Alene, Judge Edward J. Lodge also ordered Grothman to pay a $5,000 fine, perform 100 hours of community service, and pay restitution of a little over $37,000.

Grothman, the owner and operator of Health Within Chiropractic in Post Falls, pled guilty in January to felony charges of executing a scheme to defraud various health care benefit programs, including Midwest National Life Insurance Company of Tennessee. The other providers to whom the defendant was ordered to pay restitution based on his guilty plea included Blue Cross of Idaho, Safeco, Aetna, Regence Blue Shield, Farmers Insurance, United Healthcare, AIG and Cigna/Medicare, Allstate, Hartford Insurance Co., One Beacon Insurance and Washington Labor & Industries.

The government had charged that Grothman routinely defrauded insurance companies by billing for services different than those actually rendered, billing two insurance companies for the same services, and billing for new patient exams when the patient in fact was not a new one.

U.S. Attorney Tom Moss commended the FBI for its investigation of the case.