Twin Cities chiropractor pleads not guilty to fraud charges

MINNEAPOLIS (KMSP) - The first of six Twin Cities chiropractors charged last month with billing insurance companies with fake treatments pleaded not guilty Wednesday in federal court in Minneapolis.

Walking out of court afterwards, Adam Burke, who runs a clinic in Edina, had nothing else to say beyond that plea. Neither did two other people who also entered not guilty pleas, both of whom are accused of being his “runners.” Their attorneys also had no comment, one of them noting he’d not seen any of the evidence yet, so had no idea the depth of the government’s case.

The charges against 21 people total, six of them Twin Cities chiropractors, came just before Christmas. The “runners” are those alleged to have lined up accident victims to come in for treatments they did not need. They would get a cut of the insurance reimbursements, as would the fake patients.

All of this comes from a massive raid of Twin Cities chiropractic clinics that happened a year earlier. At the time, sources only told Fox 9 that it involved an insurance fraud investigation, the details of which were revealed with the indictments on Dec. 21.

Under Minnesota’s “no fault” insurance law, auto insurers are required to pay up to $20,000 for their clients medical expenses related to auto accidents, regardless of who was at fault for the accident.

In order to keep these billings rolling, federal authorities allege that some clinics even staged auto accidents with car loads of people who could then all become patients and keep a portion of the reimbursements.

No trial date is set, but a pre-trial hearing is scheduled for Feb. 15. It’s possible that two of the chiropractors charged may have plea deals in the works because of the way their charges were filed.