An East Cobb chiropractor charged with conspiracy to commit health care fraud two years ago was sentenced Friday to serve nearly five years in federal prison and ordered to pay more than $6 million in restitution. 

Andrew L. Sokol, 43, who operated WellnessOne clinics in metro Atlanta, including a location in Vinings, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Atlanta to serve 4 years and 9 months, followed by three years of supervised release. He also owes nearly $6.6 million in restitution, the amount prosecutors allege he received in payments from insurers for massages and chiropractic services fraudently billed as physical therapy. 

"This defendant received over $6.5 million in payments from Blue Cross Blue Shield and other private insurers after billing them for physical therapy services he did not provide," Atlanta U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said. "Frauds like these ultimately affect everyone – individuals, families, and communities – in higher premiums and higher service costs."

Yates said that evidence detailed in court showed that between January 2005 to September 2007, Sokol employed doctors and therapists in order to bill massages as physical therapy, even though they never saw the majority of patients. Instead, massage therapists gave the massages.

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