Former Long Island chiropractor pleads guilty in fraudulent billing scheme

A former Long Island chiropractor pleaded guilty to filing fraudulent health care bills and receiving more than $2 million in a 10-month scheme, federal prosecutors said.

Raymond R. Pellegrino, 50, faces up to 10 years at his Sept. 25 sentencing on health care fraud, authorities said. He will likely also be ordered to pay back more than $2.1 million, forfeit $504,444 and pay a fine, according to the U.S. attorney's office for the Eastern District, which covers Long Island.

Pellegrino, who had offices in West Hempstead and Hicksville, hired doctors for part-time work and then billed Anthem Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield for $4 million under those doctors' tax identification numbers for work that he knew they never performed, prosecutors said. As the founder of Epiq Medical and Hicksville Primary Medical, the chiropractor received more than $2 million between December 2013 and September 2014, prosecutors said.

“Pellegrino abused his position of trust as a health care provider by billing millions of dollars in fraudulent claims for services that doctors never provided,” Robert P. Donoghue, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District, said in a news release.

Pellegrino, a chiropractor formerly of East Islip, had  been arrested in September by federal agents  in McKinney, Texas, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where he had moved. Donoghue thanked the FBI and the New York State Department of Financial Services for their help.

His attorney could not be immediately reached Friday night.