Chiropractor Peter Adamczak sentenced to 1 year in prison in billing fraud scheme

A licensed chiropractor operating an East Meadow practice has been sentenced to a year and a day in prison in connection with a fraud scheme that saw him bill insurance providers more than $1 million for acupuncture services that were never provided, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

The office of U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District, Breon Peace, said Peter Adamczak, 66, of Huntington, was sentenced Monday before U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert in Central Islip — and that, as part of his sentence, was ordered to pay nearly $1 million in restitution for services never performed.

He also will forfeit more than $180,000, authorities said.

Adamczak had pleaded guilty to this sentence doesn't read?? / dr health care fraud in August 2022, authorities said.

Between 2016 and 2022, authorities said Adamczak submitted more than $1 million in fraudulent claims — though Adamczak was not licensed to perform acupuncture, claiming the services were performed by “an unaffiliated acupuncturist” who leased office space from him in East Meadow.

In reality, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said, neither Adamczak nor the acupuncturist performed any of the services. In one case, authorities said, payment was sent to a beneficiary who was a relative of Adamczak — and who deposited the reimbursement checks into a personal bank account, keeping the funds.

The New York State Inspector General, Lucy Lang, said in a statement that health insurance fraud “is not a victimless crime,” noting “it increases the cost of coverage for those who need it most and wastes precious medical resources” as well.

In a statement Monday, Peace said: “Today’s sentence demonstrates that Adamczak’s long-running scheme, in which he brazenly submitted false and fraudulent billing claims to an insurance provider, ultimately came at a personal cost to the defendant. This Office will continue to hold accountable dishonest health care professionals who abuse the trust placed in them by lying and cheating in order to line their own pockets.”

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”