Allentown chiropractor Dean Kevin Ziegler has been charged with insurance fraud, theft and conspiracy, the Lehigh County District Attorney's office announced Thursday.
Ziegler was charged following the execution of a search warrant at his 101 S. 14th Street office, where authorities seized computers and various documents.
According to an affidavit of probable cause prepared by the Lehigh County District Attorney's Insurance Fraud Task Force, it is alleged that Ziegler knew that bills to insurance companies had been submitted in January and February of 2009, when he was incarcerated in Lehigh County Prison.
Sent to jail following a probation violation which stemmed from an unrelated case, "Ziegler was incarcerated and unable to see patients" from Jan. 21 to Feb. 5, 2009, according to the district attorney's office.
During that time, it is alleged that State Farm Insurance, AIG Insurance, Infinity Insurance Co., Titan Automobile Insurance Co. and Nationwide Insurance Co. were billed for $3,313 for exams Ziegler claimed he gave at his office.
"Detectives reviewed tapes of numerous telephone calls that Ziegler made to his office while he was in prison," the district attorney's office said in a press release about the charges and the results of its investigation.
A subsequent undercover investigation conducted between April 26 and Oct. 27 indicated that Ziegler billed State Farm Insurance for 10 chiropractic exams he claimed he performed during scheduled appointments, when no exams were in actual fact performed, the affidavit alleges.
Ziegler, 48, was scheduled to be arraigned before District Judge Ronald Manescu on two counts each of insurance fraud and theft by deception; six counts of criminal conspiracy to commit insurance fraud; and six counts of criminal conspiracy to commit theft by deception, all of which are third-degree felonies.
Lehigh County District Attorney James Martin has announced that the investigation into Ziegler is ongoing and that no one else has been charged.
Ziegler was the only chiropractor employed at Ziegler Chiropractic Rehabilitation Center in Allentown, according to the affidavit.