Doctor sentenced in insurance billing scam

Chiropractor Kent Pollock, 62, a Camarillo resident, was sentenced after pleading guilty to 15 felony counts of insurance fraud, including a special allegation that he stole more than $50,000.

Pollock has owned and operated a chiropractic office in Camarillo for the past 26 years. From about 1996 to 2003, Pollock was involved in a systematic scheme of fraudulently billing insurance companies for the treatment of his patients, primarily in workers' compensation and personal injury cases.

One fraudulent scheme occurred when a patient was given a chiropractic adjustment and a massage on the same day. Under this scheme, the patient's insurance was billed not only for procedures performed on the day the patient was actually treated, but also for the same procedures on a subsequent day when the patient was not treated.

The fraud scheme was first discovered after one of Pollock's patients and the insurance claims adjuster noticed discrepancies in Pollock's billing practices, including specific billings for days that the patient was never treated at the doctor's office.

A twoyear investigation revealed systematic fraudulent billing practices in which Pollock committed insurance fraud against his patients' insurance companies.

Pollock was sentenced to 365 days in jail and ordered to pay $500,000-$119,350 toward victim restitution and the remainder in fines, penalties and assessments. The $500,000 was paid in full at sentencing.

As a term of probation, the defendant will be prohibited from working at a chiropractic office in any capacity.

Also, because Pollock was convicted of more than one felony count of workers' compensation fraud, the California Chiropractic Board will revoke his license to practice as a chiropractor for a minimum of 10 years.