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TRENTON
- Attorney General Stuart Rabner and Criminal
Justice Director Gregory A. Paw announced
that a Bergen County chiropractor has been
sentenced after pleading guilty for his
role in a health care insurance fraud.
According
to Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Greta Gooden
Brown, Marc Centrelli, 46, of Sparta, was
ordered by Superior Court Judge William
C. Meehan in Bergen County to pay $14,805
in fines and restitution, and to serve one
year probation. In addition, Centrelli’s
chiropractic license was suspended for three
years. Centrelli must successfully complete
an ethics course before resuming practice.
The sentence was pursuant to Centrelli’s
Jan. 11 guilty plea to a criminal accusation
which charged health care claims fraud.
At
the guilty plea hearing before Judge Meehan,
Centrelli, a licensed chiropractor with
an office in Fair Lawn, admitted that between
April 30, 2003, and Feb. 11, 2004, he recklessly
submitted more than $9,725 in insurance
claims to the Selective Insurance Company
pursuant to the Personal Injury Protection
(PIP) portion of automobile insurance policies
provided by the several insurance carriers.
Centrelli admitted that the insurance claims
were submitted for services that he did
not render. An investigation determined
that, for many of the dates on which Centrelli
submitted the claims, he was out of the
office and not seeing patients.
State Investigators Johnny Ho, Robyn Greene,
Toni Petreski, and Abraham Aquina coordinated
the investigation. DAG Kwasnik represented
the Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor
at the sentencing. Selective Insurance Company
assisted in the investigation.
Prosecutor
Brown noted that some important cases have
started with anonymous tips. People who
are concerned about insurance cheating and
have information about a fraud can report
it anonymously by calling the toll-free
hotline 1-877-55-FRAUD
or visiting the Web at www.NJInsuranceFraud.org.
State regulations permit an award to be
paid to an eligible person who provides
information that leads to an arrest, prosecution
and conviction for insurance fraud.
The
Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor was
established by the Automobile Insurance
Cost Reduction Act of 1998. The office is
the centralized state agency that investigates
and prosecutes both civil and criminal insurance
fraud, as well as Medicaid fraud.
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