N.C. Chiropractor Receives 28 Months

A chiropractor who operated clinics in Greenville and Raleigh, N.C., has been sentenced to 28 months in prison and ordered to pay $372,000 to insurance companies he defrauded in a billing scam. Steven Ira Cohen, 52, was handcuffed by federal marshals and taken into custody after a two-day sentencing hearing in federal court in Greenville.

Federal indictments said Cohen billed $1.5 million. Prosecutor Yvonne V. Watford-McKinney told Judge Malcom Howard that Cohen submitted false bills to insurance companies.

Cohen’s attorney, Larry C. Economos of Greenville, argued that poor record-keeping in the chiropractor’s office and unclear billing codes used by insurance companies resulted in inaccurate billing.

Andrew Gratzmiller, 32, of Lower Burrell, Pa., a chiropractor who had been associated with Cohen for six years, pleaded guilty to making false statements to a grand jury investigating their billing in 2003. He was sentenced to three years of probation.