By KHI NEWS SERVICE

WICHITA — A Wichita chiropractor pleaded guilty today to defrauding health care insurers of more than $1.3 million.

U.S. Attorney for Kansas Barry Grissom announced the plea by Jeffrey D. Fenn, 33, of Wichita.

Fenn also pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated identity theft and a count of tax evasion, admitting that between March 2011 and October 2013 he executed the fraud scheme through his businesses, including Wichita Health and Wellness, Fenn Chiropractic, P.A., and Wichita Pain Associates, P.A.

Fenn submitted false billing claims to Medicare, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Kansas, Coventry Health Care of Kansas, Inc., and the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program.

Chiropractors are not allowed to perform injections, dispense drugs or supervise physicians.

Fenn, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, developed what he called an “integrated practice,” hiring physicians, advanced registered nurse practitioners and physical therapists and ostensibly having them perform procedures he was not qualified to perform.

He misrepresented to the Kansas Board of Healing Arts that medical doctors had an ownership in his clinic and used the names of physicians he employed to submit false claims for services.

Fenn fraudulently billed for nerve conduction tests, nerve block injections, subcutaneous infiltrate proceedings, fine needle aspirations and ultrasound procedures.

He also made fraudulent claims for business and personal income taxes.

For example, he claimed a $9,400 business expense for purchasing a server. In fact, he spent the money to make a down payment on a residential lot in Wichita. He claimed a $15,100 expense for advertising but used the money to make a down payment on a ski boat.

Sentencing is set for Oct. 20. Attorneys for the prosecution and defense have agreed to recommend a sentence of five years in federal prison and restitution totaling more than $1.8 million.

Grissom commended the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, Office of Investigations, the FBI, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the Food and Drug Administration, the Internal Revenue Service and Assistant U.S. Attorney Tanya Treadway for their work on the case.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A federal judge is encouraging government lawyers to review what he calls “substantial” blacked-out material given to defense attorneys for a man accused of plotting a suicide bombing at Wichita’s airport.

U.S. District Judge Monti Belot told attorneys Monday he wants to move along as rapidly as possible the case of Terry Loewen, an avionics technician jailed on terrorism-related charges. Belot gave prosecutors 30 days to respond to a defense letter outlining evidence it contends should be disclosed.

Loewen was arrested Dec. 13 after allegedly trying to bring inert explosives onto the tarmac at the airport, where he worked.

He has pleaded not guilty to attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, attempting to use an explosive device to damage property and attempting to give material support to al-Qaida.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Former Republican congresswoman Jan Meyers has formally endorsed Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s re-election, six days after being listed among GOP moderates endorsing his Democratic challenger.

Brownback’s campaign released a statement Monday from Meyers saying that she’s pleased with Brownback’s efforts to reduce the state’s personal income taxes. She also said it’s important for Republicans to rally around the governor.

Last week, the campaign of Democratic challenger Paul Davis announced the formation of a new group called Republicans for Kansas Values and listed more than 100 names of mostly former GOP office holders who had endorsed Davis. The list included Meyers, who represented the Kansas City-area 3rd Congressional District from 1985 to 1997.

But Meyers said the next day that she would never publicly endorse a Democrat.

PATRICK WHITTLE, Associated Press

ROCKLAND, Maine (AP) — A former Maine man has been convicted of bashing his wife’s head with a rock and pushing her off a cliff in disputes over an affair and inheritance money.

ROCKLAND, Maine (AP) — A Maine jury is deliberating the fate of a man accused of bashing his wife’s head with a rock and pushing her off a cliff.

Authorities say Charles Black hit 55-year-old Lisa Zahn with the rock before pushing her off Maiden Cliff in Camden in 2011. Both survived after tumbling 800 feet down the mountainside.

Prosecutors say Black and Zahn were having a dispute over how Black spent some of Zahn’s inheritance.

But Black’s attorney made the case Monday that the details surrounding their falls are too fuzzy to convict Black. Prosecutors say investigators found Zahn’s blood on Black’s jacket and shoes.

The 71-year-old Black is charged with attempted murder, two counts of elevated aggravated assault and three counts of aggravated assault.

The Blacks are former Johnson County teachers.

 

SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — A new study says raising beef for the American dinner table does far more damage to the environment than producing pork, poultry, eggs or dairy.

The study says that compared with the other animal proteins, beef produces five times more heat-trapping gases per calorie. It spews six times as much water-polluting nitrogen. And it uses 11 times more water for irrigation and 28 times more land.

The research was conducted by Gidon Eshel, a professor of environmental physics at Bard College in New York, and appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The cattle industry says the study is a “gross oversimplification.”

ARMA, Kan- A Kansas man was injured in an accident at 9:20 a.m. on Monday in Crawford County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2012 Ford passenger car driven by William D. Raine III, 25, Shawnee, was northbound on U.S. 69 eight miles north of Arma.

The car drifted across the southbound lanes and sideswiped a southbound 2012 Freightliner semi driven by Larry R. Carrell, 37, Henderson, TX. The semi had moved to the southbound shoulder in attempt to avoid the collision.

Raine was transported to  Mercy hospital. The semi driver and a passenger were not injured.

The KHP reported Raine was properly restrained at the time of the accident.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says he supports statehood for the nation’s capital.

Obama was asked Monday about the prospect of the District of Columbia becoming the 51st state during a town hall at a city school.

The president said, “I’m for it,” adding that he has been “for quite some time.”

Obama added that: “The politics of it end up being difficult to get through Congress, but I think it’s absolutely the right thing to do.”

Obama has previously spoken in favor of giving the District voting representation in Congress, and the White House has consistently supported giving the local government full control of the city’s budget and laws.

Following his re-election in 2012, Obama added District license plates with the phrase “Taxation Without Representation” to his official vehicles.