January 2008

Practitioners

In New Jersey, a podiatrist was sentenced to 24 months in prison and ordered to pay $350,000 in restitution for his guilty plea to health care fraud. An investigation revealed that the podiatrist performed routine foot care on residents in community rooms of low-income buildings then billed the Medicare program as if he performed more complex procedures. In fact, residents were only getting their nails clipped. In August 2007, the podiatrist agreed to pay $868,000 to resolve his false claims act liability for the same conduct.

In Maryland, an employee of the Association for Retarded Citizens (ARC) was sentenced to 2 years incarceration, all but 6 days suspended, for neglect of vulnerable adults. In addition, she was placed on 2 years of probation during which time she cannot work with vulnerable adults. Investigation revealed that on a cold day in December 2006, the ARC employee left two developmentally disabled women in the company's minivan, unsupervised, at a local shopping mall while she shopped for over an hour. ARC received reimbursement from the Maryland Medicaid for services provided to the vulnerable adults.

In Nevada, a man was sentenced to 5 years probation and ordered to pay over $78,000 in restitution for failure to pay child support. Ordered to pay child support as part of his 1992 divorce, the man failed to pay for the support of his daughter now emancipated. In March 2007, the man was located and arrested in Nevada based on a warrant issued from the Western District of Michigan. The case was transferred to the State of Nevada where he subsequently pled guilty.