Chiropractor, wife sentenced for health fraud scheme

A former Lake in the Hills chiropractor and his fitness instructor wife were recently sentenced to federal prison for a $1 million health fraud scheme, officials said.

Andrew Carr, 45, was sentenced to eight years at a hearing last week, while Wendy Carr, 43, received a 28-month sentence on Wednesday for the scheme that they continued for a year after they were indicted in 2011, the U.S. attorney's office said in a release.

Carr worked as a chiropractor at Premier Health in Palatine, Community Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in Mundelein, Allied Health in Mundelein, Edgewater Rehabilitation and Wellness Center in Lake in the Hills, and Fusion Health and Fitness in Lakemoor.

“They pretended to be the victim patients' friends, convinced the victim patients to take their fitness classes, and convinced the victim patients to get treatment from (Andrew Carr) when the classes caused physical pain or injury,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Shoba Pillay said in a statement.

Between 2005 and June 2011, Andrew Carr submitted health insurance claim forms for at least 376 patients totaling more than $4.2 million for services not provided, receiving more than $865,000 for those claims.

His wife joined him in 2009, filing an additional $1.6 million for services not provided, receiving more than $328,000 in fraudulent payments.

After being indicted, they filed an additional 596 fraudulent claims and were paid more than $160,000 in additional fraudulent money.

The couple plead guilty and were ordered to pay more than $1.5 million in restitution by U.S. District Judge Robert M. Dow Jr., who imposed the sentences in federal court.