San Mateo County Chiropractor Sentenced For Insurance Fraud

SAN MATEO COUNTY, CA -- A chiropractor who worked out of an office in Daly City has been sentenced in San Mateo County Superior Court to a year in jail and ordered to pay $877,000 in restitution for insurance fraud related to a food allergy test he gave to more than 250 patients.

During his Tuesday, Aug. 27 sentencing, Benjamin Darrow, 49, was also ordered by Judge Raymond Swope to serve six years and four months on probation following his jail term and not to practice chiropractic medicine during that time.

Separately, an administrative accusation seeking to revoke or suspend Darrow's license is pending before the California Board of Chiropractic Examiners.

During the second day of a jury trial in May, Darrow plead no contest before Swope in May to three criminal charges: insurance fraud, unlicensed practice of medicine and illegal markup of laboratory charges.

San Mateo County District Attorney Steven Wagstaffe said the test Darrow administered between 2012 and 2015 was not designated for coverage by insurance companies because it was not proven effective at testing for food allergies.

Wagstaffe said Darrow manipulated the way he billed for the test to disguise the fact he was performing it; claimed he was performing the test onsite although he was actually sending blood samples to an outside laboratory; and paid the laboratory about $600 per test but charged insurance companies about $3000 per test.

The restitution is to be paid to Blue Shield of California, UnitedHealthcare, Anthem Insurance Companies, and Cigna.

The judge ordered Darrow to begin serving his sentence on Jan. 1.

Bay City News Service contributed to this report.