NEWS RELEASE
UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
WESTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA
John L. Brownlee United States Attorney Brian McGinn Public Affairs Specialist |
BB&T Building 310 1st Street, S.W., Room 906 Roanoke, Virginia 24011 (540) 857-2974 FAX (540) 857-2179 |
February 21, 2008
Dublin Doctor Who Defrauded Medicaid And Medicare Pleads Guilty To Health Care Fraud
United States Attorney John L. Brownlee and Attorney General Bob McDonnell announced today that Dr. Linda Sue Cheek, 59, of Dublin, Virginia, pleaded guilty in Federal Court in Roanoke, Virginia, to health care fraud. Dr. Cheek pleaded guilty to participating in a scheme to knowingly and willfully defraud the Medicaid and Medicare health care programs for her own personal financial gain from January 2002 to March 2006.
“This joint case demonstrates the positive results we can achieve when all levels of law enforcement work together,” said Bob McDonnell, Attorney General, Commonwealth of Virginia. “I specifically want to thank the United States Attorney’s Office, the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General, and our Medicaid Fraud Control Unit for their work in this operation. Health care fraud significantly impacts Virginia citizens, and costs taxpayers. Successful investigations such as this one are essential to putting an end to health care fraud in the Commonwealth.”
“The taxpayers spend billions of dollars to support the Medicare and Medicaid health care programs. Physicians, like Dr. Cheek, who defraud those important programs for their own desire for personal wealth, must be prosecuted and punished,” said U.S. Attorney Brownlee. “I am grateful to all the members of law enforcement for their outstanding work on this investigation.”
The defendant, who was a licensed physician by the Commonwealth of Virginia, operated New River Medical Associates, Inc. located in Dublin, Virginia. The facility operated primarily as a pain management and alternative medicine practice.
Cheek admitted in Federal Court yesterday that between January 2002 and March 2006 she submitted a series of false Medicare and Medicaid claims relating to her medical practice, including the practice of billing Medicaid and Medicare for services she had not performed.
In addition, Cheek admitted to billing Medicaid for services she claimed to perform herself that were in fact performed by one or both of the two nurse practitioners employed by New River Medical Associates. However, Cheek admitted that during many of these procedures she was out of the office and, at times, out of the country.
Finally, Cheek admitted to billing Medicaid and Anthem Blue Cross Beneficiaries for individual treatments called “cleansing sessions,” an investigational service. These “cleansing sessions” were performed and billed as regular, individual office visits but were carried out in a group setting. Medicaid, Medicare and other insurance providers do not allow medical professionals to bill for group sessions.
Sentencing has been scheduled for May 15 at 10 a.m. in United States District Court in the Western District of Virginia in Roanoke. Cheek faces a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment and a fine of $250,000.
This case was investigated for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Virginia by the Virginia Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, the Virginia State Police Drug Diversion Unit, the Food and Drug Administration and the Financial Investigation Unit of Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield.
Assistant United States Attorneys Patrick Hogeboom and Charlene Day prosecuted the case.