TOPEL

Chiropractors Convicted of Miscoding VAX-D Claims

In June 2006, Eric Topel, 34, of Allen, Texas, formerly of Destin, Florida, and his brother Christopher Topel, 44, of Wichita, Kansas, formerly of Atlanta, Georgia, were sentenced to prison for health care fraud. Each was ordered to spend 34 months in prison to be followed by 3 years of supervised release that includes 350 hours of community service. Court documents indicate that between 2003 and 2005 the Topels improperly collected nearly $2 million from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia (BCBS) by miscoding claims for patients whom they treated with Vertebral Axial Decompression (VAX-D), a nonsurgical procedure that BCBS considers experimental and unnecessary and does not cover. To execute the scheme, employees were instructed to use CPT Code 64722, which is the code …