On Feb. 5, 2007, in the U.S. District Court, Western District of Kentucky, Louisville Division, a federal grand jury returned a superseding indictment charging Dr. Paul "Uncle Paul" Hollern with four counts covering scheming to defraud, videotaping patients, retaliation against a witness, and perhaps the most severe complaint, HIPAA violations. This is just the latest development in a tangled web of legal troubles facing Hollern.
According to the indictment, count one alleges Dr. Hollern "aided and abetted by others, did execute, and attempt to execute, a scheme and artifice to defraud health care benefit programs in connection with the delivery of and payment for health care benefits, items and services." The timeline on Hollern's alleged activities dates back to 1998, and the indictment states that he "individually and through his companies, taught business training participants to sell prospective patients a 20-30 visit regimen, without regard for each patient's particular medical needs."
The indictment goes on to state that "to induce prospective patients to accept the treatments, Hollern, individually and through his companies, taught student chiropractors to misrepresent to prospective patients the results of x-rays. Specifically, for patients with normal x-rays, Hollern, individually and through his companies, taught the business training participants to tell prospective patients that their back pain was caused by the reduced size of an intervertebral foramen in the patient's lower back. The intervertebral foramen at the level shown by Hollern and the business training participants naturally appears smaller on the lateral x-ray view, which was the view used by Hollern and the business training participants." The indictment then alleges that Hollern and his graduates billed Medicare, various state Medicaid programs and private health care benefit programs for treatment provided to their patients, including those who "accepted treatment based on misrepresentations."
Count two of the indictment alleges that Hollern "did intentionally intercept and procured another person to intercept oral communications, using an electronic device, on the premises of a business that affected interstate commerce" and that he "installed, or directed others to install, electronic video and audio recording devices in patient treatment, examination and consultation rooms ... Hollern videotaped patients without their knowledge or under false pretenses. Each videotape captured individually identifiable health information for the patients recorded on the videotape. The videotapes were used by Hollern and others to critique the sales techniques used by the participants in Hollern's business training program. Upon each participant's graduation from the Hollern business training program, Hollern distributed the videotapes of the patients to the participants, who removed the videotapes from the office in which the patient was treated."
Count three is perhaps the most serious of all of the charges. According to the indictment, "Hollern knowingly and in violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, disclosed individually identifiable health information to another person, under false pretenses and with the intent to use the individually identifiable information for commercial advantage and personal gain; in that, the defendant videotaped patients and disclosed those videotapes to other healthcare providers as part of a business training program for which the defendant charged participants and released the videotapes from the office to the business training participants following the patient treatment and consultation."
Count four, retaliation against a witness, refers to an incident reported in the Jan. 29, 2007 issue of Dynamic Chiropractic ("More Legal Troubles for 'Uncle Paul'"). The indictment states that Hollern "knowingly, with the intent to retaliate against a witness for providing to a law enforcement officer truthful information relating to the commission and possible commission of a Federal offense, took action harmful to the witness by attempting to interfere with the witness's lawful employment and livelihood; to wit, the defendant proclaimed to the witness's neighbors and employers that the witness was involved in child pornography."
If convicted, Hollern faces a maximum sentence of 10 years, $250,000 in fines and supervised release for three years for counts one, three and four; and a sentence of five years, $250,000 in fines and three years supervised release for count two.
A Timeline of Legal Trouble
While the U.S. justice system presume everyone innocent until proven guilty, Paul Hollern and the UnclePaul Chiropractic Business Training Corporation have been in the legal spotlight dating back to 2004, when charges were first brought alleging that he violated state statutes. In 2005, Hollern filed for bankruptcy in Jefferson County, Ky., just days before a series of new U.S. bankruptcy laws went into effect. More recently, in June 2006, he was arrested and spent several nights in the Grayson County jail before being arraigned in federal court on one count of obstruction of justice. Until his obstruction of justice indictment, Dr. Hollern maintained a single chiropractic practice in Hillview, Ky.
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