Pa. chiropractor pleads guilty to submitting false vehicle accident injury claim to insurer

A chiropractor in south-central Pennsylvania has pleaded guilty in federal

court to submitting a false vehicle accident personal injury claim to an insurer.

Lawrence S. Herman, 47, of Frederick, M.D., submitted a claim to the USAA insurance company in May 2012 for injuries he allegedly sustained in an August 16, 2011, car accident in Maryland, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

The defendant, who owns and operates Herman Chiropractic in Waynesboro, Pa., supported his claim with records showing he was treated by another chiropractor for neck and back injuries between the summer of 2011 and early 2012, prosecutors stated.

After USAA failed to honor the injury claim, Herman hired a Baltimore area law firm to demand that the insurer reimburse the man in the amount of $60,000 for his chiropractic treatment sessions, and also for pain and suffering, the record shows.

On Dec. 9, Herman pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Sylvia Rambo in Harrisburg to a one-count criminal information charging him with False Statements in Health Care Matters.

During his guilty plea hearing in federal court, Herman admitted that the medical treatment records he had submitted were false and were created, at his discretion, by a chiropractor who worked for him at the Waynesboro practice.

Herman concealed the fact that that chiropractor worked for him by submitting the fraudulent treatment records to USAA under a fictitious business letterhead created by Herman, according to the government.

During the plea hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kim Douglas Daniel said that Herman was not injured in the vehicle accident, and had actually participated in various 5K, 10K, half-marathon and full marathon runs during the period when he was supposedly being treated by the other chiropractor, according to the prosecutor’s office.

Herman faces a maximum federal prison sentence of five years, plus an unspecified term of supervised release and fine.