Louisiana Chiropractor Sentenced to Seven Years in Prison for Health Care Fraud and Unemployment Insurance Fraud Schemes

A Louisiana chiropractor was sentenced today to seven years in prison for his role in health care fraud and unemployment insurance fraud schemes.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Dr. Benjamin Tekippe, 40, of New Orleans, was a chiropractor and owner of Metairie Chiropractic & Rehab in New Orleans. Tekippe solicited patients with insurance from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana (BCBSLA) to visit his clinic by misleadingly offering "free" chiropractic massages for BCBSLA members. Tekippe would typically bill their insurance for the massage, which was generally a full-body massage performed by a massage therapist, and which was not covered. Tekippe would also routinely bill BCBSLA for several other chiropractic services that were either not performed or not performed as billed, including thousands of false and fraudulent claims for chiropractic services he purportedly provided to patients while he was out of the office, including on vacation in Aruba and incarcerated in Arizona and Washington in connection with state charges. When audited by BCBSLA, Tekippe fabricated patient records and instructed his staff to rewrite them in their own handwriting to make it falsely appear that services had been performed as billed. In total, Tekippe submitted over $2.3 million in claims to BCBSLA, and was paid approximately $740,000. Evidence at trial showed that Tekippe spent the fraudulent proceeds on luxury goods and gambling, including over $90,000 at Harrah's Casino in New Orleans, among other things.

In addition, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Tekippe submitted weekly certifications falsely claiming that he was unemployed when he was billing for chiropractic services purportedly performed during his claimed unemployment. Through this scheme, Tekippe received $12,952 in unemployment insurance benefits to which he was not entitled.

In April 2025, Tekippe was convicted by a federal jury of six counts of health care fraud and one count of wire fraud. In addition to the prison sentence, he was ordered to pay$753,794.36 in restitution.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti of the Justice Department's Criminal Division; Acting U.S. Attorney Michael M. Simpson for the Eastern District of Louisiana; and Special Agent in Charge Jason Meadows of the Department of Health and Human Service Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG) Dallas Region, Baton Rouge Field Office made the announcement.

The FBI and HHS-OIG investigated the case.

Trial Attorneys Kelly Z. Walters and Samantha Usher of the Criminal Division's Fraud Section prosecuted the case.

The Fraud Section leads the Criminal Division's efforts to combat health care fraud through the Health Care Fraud Strike Force program. Since March 2007, this program, currently comprised of 9 strike forces operating in 27 federal districts, has charged more than 5,800 defendants who collectively have billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $30 billion. In addition, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with HHS-OIG, are taking steps to hold providers accountable for their involvement in health care fraud schemes. More information can be found at https://www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/health-care-fraud-unit.