Kennewick chiropractor charged with improper conduct

Published: 2011-08-02 08:30:57
Author: MICHELLE DUPLER

  A Kennewick chiropractor has been charged with unprofessional conduct based on allegations he billed 12 patients' insurance companies for treatments not listed in their medical records.

 

This is the second time Scott K. Akridge has been charged by the Chiropractic Quality Assurance Commission, the state agency overseeing the licensing of chiropractors.

Charges filed by the commission are not criminal and only affect Akridge's license to practice in Washington.

 

Akridge was placed on a one-year probation by the commission in 2003 after being convicted in Benton County on the felony charge of making a false statement or concealing information stemming from his use of his dead father's name to bill the state Department of Labor and Industries for treating injured workers.

Akridge has been licensed as a chiropractor in Washington since 1981.

 

Doug Phelps, the Spokane-based attorney representing Akridge, said the chiropractor plans to dispute the charges.

"We're going to try to work with the department to resolve them," Phelps told the Herald on Monday.

 

The statement of charges released by the commission claims from 2001 to 2009, Akridge billed insurance companies for spinal manipulation, mechanical traction or other therapies for 12 different patients on several occasions.

But the patients' medical records didn't document that Akridge performed the procedures, commission documents said.

In one case, the commission claims Akridge acknowledged the bills were errors, documents said.

 

Akridge's previous case involving the Department of Labor & Industries dates back to 1995, when the department discovered he had overbilled for unnecessary x-rays and procedures for injured workers, according to a department news release from 2002 published on its website.

Akridge at the time gave up his Labor & Industries provider number and opted to stop treating injured workers. The department said he could have continued if he had paid a $41,000 fine and taken some continuing education courses.

 

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