I was both a patient and did some close to volunteer work for the chiropractor Dean Ziegler of Ziegler Chiropractic. He was arrested and has a felony charge for Insurance Fraud. He was also charged with beating up and throwing his girlfriend down a flight of stairs. I also witnessed the falsification of medical records. He was going into jail for the fraud charges and wanted to send bills to the insurance company on a hand full of patients. He didn't have notes completed to send with the bills. He wanted me to create those notes and had instructed me to do it making patient pain scales change in a bell shape format, showing the patients getting a little better and getting a little worse to justify ongoing treatment. I knew this was wrong, but if I didn't do it, another massage therapist would have been told to do it. That massage therapist could loose their license for doing this fraudulent act and by me doing it, i could be charged with no such thing nor did I have a license to loose. I basically wanted to protect the innocent massage therapist for any sanctions.
As a patient, I had a medical specialist order Rehab for my back injury. All that this chiropractor wanted to do was massage which is easy money and not perform the ordered rehab which I needed to recover. He had ordered massage three times a week and delayed my recovery. His patient exam he did on me had notations that weren't accurate. He was not accurate in my evaluation. For instance, he noted I had pain radiating in a manner that was not and stated I had muscle spams (which I did not). Watch your insurance bills. He billed for an exam (CPT 99212) with every massage that was done on me although an actual exam was not done. I guess he feels that saying hi while he sits in front of his computer counts as doing an exam on you. Your insurance will be charged for it and he will use his computer program to create an exam note as if he did a full exam on you. My attorney suggested I stop going to him, especially since he had a felony charge against him.
I also had a friend that was going there for treatment as well. Shortly after receiving back adjustments in a few consecutive days, she developed severe pain in her lower back and ended up in the emergency room. This information was given to me by my friend and same complaint and treatment regimen also noted in medical records of her treatment Dean Ziegler sent to me himself. I had posted on her Facebook wishes for a speedy recovery. Although I didn't use this chiropractors name in the post, Dr Dean Ziegler thought he would try to sue me at our local magistrate for $11,999.99. He tried to say I violated HIPPA laws for the post and defamed him. He obviously doesn't know HIPPA laws because private citizens are not held to HIPPA laws and she told me about he pain herself. The case was dismissed. She also stopped going to this provider. Its also important to say he attempted this during the time his license was suspended and he was not able to treat patients.
Its also funny that at the hearing, he had his office manager/girlfriend there as a witness. She was herself charged by the local government with drug charges. At one point she had a bench warrant out for her arrest. She was eventually picked up by police at Dean Zieglers residence. I didn't consider her to be a credible witness. Interesting that a drug user was also an employee for this establishment.
After making this post, my partner who worked for this man, had his employment terminated for allegedly hurting a patient. Dean Ziegler would not say how this patient was hurt nor who the patient even was. If a patient was hurt, you would think there would be some questioning about what was done to the patient during treatment. There was just an unfounded accusation. Important to note that my partner had worked for this chiropractor for about 7 years. During the same time, Dean had also recommended him to another massage business as a potential candidate for employment. He was hired by them. He tried to still work both jobs but Dean had ended that option.
Its important to note that my partner was the last massage therapist that this man had officially on the books. The other massage therapists that "worked" there were paid as "Independent contractors". These massage therapists didn't do their own billing for services nor receive any W2 or I9 at the end of the year for tax purposes. You can come to your own conclusion about this.
I post this solely to give my experience with Dr Dean Ziegler. I could post more, but I feel the reader can make their own judgments about this mans character from this reading. I couldn't tell you not to go to him for treatment but I will say there are MANY chiropractors in the Allentown area. Choose wisely.
I would not recommend this provider to a friend or family member.
