East Meadow chiropractor pleads guilty to $1M healthcare fraud scheme

A  chiropractor practicing in East Meadow pleaded guilty in federal court in Central Islip Monday to a $1 million healthcare fraud scheme, officials said.

Peter Adamczak, a Huntington resident, had billed an insurance company for acupuncture services that were never provided, according to Breon Peace, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

“Adamczak bilked an insurance company for acupuncture services that he never performed, brazenly lying in order to line his own pockets with money that he did not earn,” Peace said in a statement.

“As a healthcare professional, Adamczak was required to uphold the highest standards of honesty and integrity, and failed both miserably,” he added.

Officials said that from 2016 to 2020, Adamczak submitted more than $1 million in fraudulent claims for reimbursement to a private insurance company. And while Adamczak was not licensed to perform acupuncture, he claimed that the services were provided by an unaffiliated acupuncturist to whom he leased office space. Yet neither the unaffiliated acupuncturist nor Adamczak performed the billed acupuncture services.

The insurance company, based on  those claims, paid about $994,838 in reimbursements to its beneficiaries who, in turn, delivered the payments to Adamczak, according to officials.

In one instance, a beneficiary – a relative of Adamczak – deposited the reimbursement checks to a personal bank account and kept the funds, officials said.

Details about sentencing were not immediately available