UTICA — A former Oneida County chiropractor has admitted to faking medical examinations and reports to facilitate fraudulent workers’-compensation claims by employees of the Central New York Psychiatric Center (CNYPC) — getting them paid time off to which they were not entitled. That’s according to a Nov. 5 news release from New York State Inspector […]
UTICA — A former Oneida County chiropractor has admitted to faking medical examinations and reports to facilitate fraudulent workers’-compensation claims by employees of the Central New York Psychiatric Center (CNYPC) — getting them paid time off to which they were not entitled.
That’s according to a Nov. 5 news release from New York State Inspector General Catherine Leahy Scott.
Eric Szatko, 47, of Sauqoit, who formerly had a chiropractic practice in Utica, pleaded guilty in the City of Utica Court to the crime of falsifying business records in the second degree in full satisfaction of all charges pending against him, per the release.
As part of Szatko’s plea agreement, he surrendered his license to practice as a chiropractor and must pay nearly $5,000 in restitution for fees he charged an insurance company for “bogus appointments” as well as for the time the psychiatric center employees were able to take off because of Szatko’s fraudulent reports.
“This former chiropractor’s medical mill was a shameful malpractice on New York taxpayers who ultimately subsidized illicit paid vacations for public employees feigning work-related injuries,” Leahy Scott said. “The integrity of the Worker’s Compensation system is crucial to protecting honest, hard-working New Yorkers, and I will continue working with all of my law enforcement partners to pursue and root out anyone who corruptly abuses it.”
The guilty plea covers Szatko’s criminal actions that occurred in early 2016 involving three separate employees of the psychiatric center, including one who was convicted last March of feigning a debilitating injury to obtain paid time off as if he was too injured to work while he was actually kayaking in Puerto Rico and vacationing with his girlfriend in California, the release stated.
An investigation by Inspector General Leahy Scott found that Szatko, acting as an authorized medical provider for the workers’-compensation system, submitted to the State Insurance Fund fraudulent medical progress reports indicating he examined and treated CNYPC employees on several separate occasions in early 2016, when in fact no such examinations or treatments occurred. With those reports, Szatko was also billing for medical services that were not provided, the release stated.
Oneida County District Attorney Scott D. McNamara and his office assisted with the investigation and prosecuted this matter, while the New York State Police made the arrest.