NEWPORT NEWS — - The U.S. attorney's office has charged a Newport News chiropractor with health care fraud, saying he intentionally billed health management companies for services he never performed.

Brad L. Forbes managed the Atlantic Health Care Group and Forbes Peak Performance at 11711 Jefferson Ave., near Oyster Point. He's accused of defrauding Aetna Inc., Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, CIGNA Health Care and the Mail Handlers Benefit Plan on bills submitted between January 2004 and November 2005.

"The scheme was designed to defraud health care benefit programs" by billing the companies for services "which falsely and fraudulently were represented to have been performed by the defendant," according to a document the U.S. attorney's office filed Nov. 7 in U.S. District Court in Norfolk. "In truth and fact, as the defendant well knew, patients had not received these services, which was evidenced by the lack of corresponding progress notes in the respective patients' files."

In addition, the document says, Forbes hired a part-time medical doctor to provide sinus and allergy treatments at the clinic. But, it says, "physical therapy treatments were billed to a health care benefit program by the defendant under this medical doctor's name for services never provided by this medical doctor."

The court document didn't say how much Forbes is accused of falsely billing but said checks were processed and paid to him. The document didn't spell out how the activity was noticed or how the case developed.

Robert E. Bradenham II is the assistant U.S. attorney handling the case. He said the dollar amount would be announced at a later hearing but declined to comment further.

Forbes, 33, of Newport News, was at his office Thursday but didn't return two phone messages.

Timothy Clancy, the Hampton attorney representing Forbes, declined to respond to specific allegations in the filings. He said, "Dr. Forbes has been cooperating with the federal authorities and expects to resolve these issues within the next several weeks. We're not in a position to comment further."

A plea agreement hearing has been set in U.S. District Court on Dec. 14 before Judge Jerome B. Friedman.

Such a plea deal, which spares a defendant from having to go to trial, often involves a defendant agreeing to plead guilty in return for a lesser charge or some charges being dropped. It sometimes results in both sides requesting a less severe punishment from a judge.

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