Practitioners

In Florida, a physician was sentenced to 46 months in prison and ordered to pay $2.357 million in restitution for her involvement in a kickback scheme. The physician, who entered into a relationship with owners of medical equipment companies, performed cursory examinations of patients referred by the company owners. The physician then signed prescriptions for equipment and medications regardless of medical necessity. The physician received cash kickbacks from the medical equipment company owners based on the reimbursement rate for the item or medication prescribed.

In Georgia, a physician was sentenced to 8 months incarceration and ordered to pay $136,000 in restitution for health care fraud. The physician forged another physician’s signature on prescriptions for motorized wheelchairs and submitted false claims to Medicare.

Prescription Drug Fraud

In New York, a pharmacist was sentenced to 55 months in prison and ordered to pay $1.325 million for health care fraud and money laundering. The pharmacist, who formerly owned and operated a retail pharmacy, billed Medicaid and private insurers for prescription refills not authorized by the prescribing physician, billed name brand drugs when generic drugs were provided, and billed for prescriptions that were never actually filled.

Child Support Enforcement

In New York, a man was sentenced to one year and one day incarceration for failure to pay child support. The man paid $160,000 prior to sentencing. The man fled the State in 2002, secreted over $600,000 in assets, transferred assets to relatives, and generated in excess of $125,000 in one year on eBay thereby avoiding any third-party reporting requirements. Further, he hid his whereabouts for approximately 3 years.

In Georgia, a man was sentenced to 5 years probation and ordered to pay $60,000 in restitution for failure to pay child support. The man originally owed over $100,000 in past due support but began making payments totaling approximately $46,000 to show his cooperation during the investigation.