A Franklin County chiropractor is sentenced to 5 month in prison after pleading guilty to submitting a bogus personal injury claim. Lawrence Herman, 47, who actually lives in Frederick, Maryland, is the owner/operator of “Herman Chiropractic” in Waynesboro. Herman plead guilty in December 2013 to a one count indictment charging him with False Statements in Health Care Matters in federal court. The plea was part of a plea bargain deal with federal prosecutors.
The charges stemmed from a claim Herman submitted to the USAA Insurance Company in May 2012 for injuries allegedly suffered in an August 2011 automobile accident in Maryland. Herman supported his claim with records that stated that he had been treated by a chiropractor for neck and back injuries between August 2011 and January 2012. When USAA did not honor the claim, Herman hired a Baltimore area law fire and demanded $60,000 from USAA, including $17,527 for reimbursement of his chiropractic treatment expenses and the remainder for pain and suffering.
Herman was sentenced to 5 months in prison followed by 5 months of home detention by Judge Sylvia Rambo. Judge Rambo also ordered Herman to serve one year probation following his prison term, pay a $600 fine and a $100 special assessment.
During his guilty plea hearing Herman admitted the chiropractic treatment records were phony and were created at his direction, by a chiropractor who worked for him in his Waynesboro office. To conceal the fact the chiropractor was his employee, Herman submitted the phony treatment records to USAA under a fictitious business letterhead he created. Herman was not seriously injured in the minor, fender-bender type accident and he ran in several 5K, 10K, Half-Marathon and Marathon foot races during the time period when he was supposedly being treated for his back and neck injuries between September and November 2011.