“Fraudulent Foot Fiend” Podiatrist Sentenced to Jail

Neil Van Dyck, DPM was a California-licensed podiatrist who operated a podiatry practice in Roseville called Placer Podiatry. There, he offered “spa-like” treatments and performed routine foot care.

Van Dyck is about to go to a different kind of spa. On April 15, 2016, U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. sentenced Van Dyck to three years in prison and a $10, 000 fine for committing healthcare fraud. He pled guilty to the crime last October. Van Dyck faced a maximum statutory penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250, 000 or twice the loss or gain.

Patrick McDonald, writing for medicalmiscreants.com said the case of the “fraudulent foot fiend” came to light when a Medicare investigator requested medical records on a single bill for a procedure that was supposedly done in the summer of 2011. The bill illegally reported that the doctor had performed a toenail removal, when nothing of the sort had been done. “Detectives guessed there was trouble afoot.”

Between 2009 and 2014, according to the Department of Justice, Van Dyck submitted over $2.8 million in fraudulent claims for reimbursement to Medicare, Medi-Cal, Tricare and private insurers. He falsely claimed that he performed more expensive procedures than he actually performed, or that the routine foot care that was provided was justified because of illness or symptoms that were not present. Often the treatments were performed by unlicensed staff, sometimes when Van Dyck was not present at his practice

Additionally, says the government, Van Dyck altered a single-use skincare patch by cutting it into pieces and billed Medicare for multiple applications. In 2011, in response to a request for documents from an investigator for Medicare, Van Dyck altered patients’ medical records to justify his fraudulent bills. Medicare, Medi-Cal, Tricare, and the private insurers paid Van Dyck over $1 million for his fraudulent claims.

“Van Dyck schemed to increase his profits at the expense of patients and taxpayers, ” said Steven Ryan, Special Agent in Charge for the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “Instead, along with our law enforcement partners, my agents ensured that he ended up paying a high price, indeed, for his criminal actions.”

The court previously entered an order requiring Van Dyck forfeited $1.2 million from a retirement account into which proceeds of the healthcare fraud scheme were traced. Most of this money is expected to be used to pay restitution to the insurance victims. A further restitution hearing is set for May 27, 2016.

Van Dyck received his Doctor of Podiatric Medicine in 1979 from California College of Podiatric Medicine in San Francisco, California, and completed his surgical residency at Valley West in San Jose, California.

He had staff privileges at Sutter Roseville Medical Center, Sutter Auburn Medical Center, South Placer Surgery Center and Roseville Surgery Center. He also served as a Qualified Medical Evaluator for the State of California Worker’s Compensation Medical Unit.