Public and private health insurers were the primary victims in the fraud case against Hertel & Brown Physical & Aquatic Therapy, where the owners and many employees overbilled for care by tens of millions of dollars.
But another victim suffered as Hertel & Brown used its ill-gotten revenue to expand to become arguably the best-known physical therapy clinic in the Erie area.
That victim, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and others, was Erie’s physical therapy market…