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TRENTON
- Attorney General Stuart Rabner and Criminal
Justice Director Gregory A. Paw announced
that the office manager for an Essex County
chiropractor has been sentenced for paying
“runners” to illegally secure
patients and fraudulently generate insurance
claims.
According
to Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Greta Gooden
Brown, Andrew Farro, 45, former office manager
for Valley Total Health Center in Orange,
was sentenced on Friday to three years probation,
conditioned on 90 days of house arrest,
by Superior Court Judge Thomas R. Vena in
Essex County. Farro previously paid a $10,000
civil insurance fraud fine and was ordered
to perform 200 hours of community service.
Farro pleaded guilty before Judge Vena on
April 3, 2006 to second-degree conspiracy
to commit health care claims fraud and third-degree
criminal use of runners.
On.
Sept. 22, 2006, Farro’s co-defendant,
Eugene Ruta, 43, a licensed chiropractor
formerly employed at Valley Total Health
Center in Orange, was sentenced by Judge
Vena to three years probation conditioned
on him serving 364 days in the Essex County
Jail. The sentence followed Ruta’s
April 3, 2006 guilty plea to third-degree
conspiracy and health care claims fraud.
Ruta
and Farro admitted that they paid “runners”
up to $2,000 to solicit patients for treatment
at the Valley Total Health Center. As a
result of using “runners,” Ruta
and Farro submitted more than $12,490 in
claims to Parkway Insurance Company for
medical services for “patients”
that, in fact, were never provided. The
investigation determined that Parkway ultimately
paid more than $5,900 to Valley Total Health
Center as reimbursement.
State
Investigator Ned Shaw and Deputy Attorney
General Andrew C. Fried handled the case.
The Newark Police Department and Parkway
Insurance Company assisted in the investigation.
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