4 More Go Down in $154 Million Medical Billing Fraud Prosecution
Source: OCW
An attorney, an accountant and two administrators were convicted today for their roles in a $154 million medical fraud and the largest such prosecution in the nation, according to the Orange County District Attorney's office (OCDA). The defendants, who are scheduled to be sentenced on these convictions on Dec. 20 but still have other fraud charges pending against them, recruited more than 255 healthy patients to undergo unnecessary and dangerous surgeries at a since-closed Buena Park facility so medical insurance companies could be fraudulently billed.
The Orange County Superior Court case, which also involves charges of failing to file tax returns and under-reporting income to state tax authorities, was so involved, voluminous and defendant-heavy that the Santa Ana court bifurcated it. Another trial date is to be set on additional counts.
All the defendants were tied to Unity Outpatient Surgery Center, the Buena Park facility that has since shut its doors. An investigation by the OCDA, the California Franchise Tax Board and the California Department of Insurance revealed the scammers recruited 2,841 healthy people from all over the country to receive unnecessary surgeries in exchange for money or low cost cosmetic surgery. Insurance companies paid out more than $20 million over a nine-month period.
Of the 19 defendants charged in the Unity case, 13 were indicted by the Orange County grand jury on June 13, 2008. Six other defendants in the Unity case pleaded guilty before indictment and have been sentenced. The grand jury examined 1,054 exhibits and heard testimony from 56 witnesses over 28 days, resulting in a 70-page indictment.
Read more: http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2012/11/roy_chester_dickson_medical_fr.php
sheshe2
(83,898 posts)nakocal
(555 posts)1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)$714 Million that President Obama stole from Medicare to pay for ObamaCare?
You're gosh darn right it is ... This is exactly where President Obama projected massive savings.
LiberalAndProud
(12,799 posts)I don't think Medicare or Medicaid were targeted in these cases. The victims were insurance companies and the patients who were bribed to undergo the surgery.
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)My bad.
gussmith
(280 posts)Why the unfounded charge of theft? Don't you have to read before you can write?
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)Put down the coffee, the Monster Energy Drink and the Cheetos.
Then, read the "Oops" comment that I posted when corrected. ( But ... if you did not see my "Oops" comment before posting your admonishment ... the self-delete button works remarkably well.)
Then, re-read my original post and, with "YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT" cite to where I made an "unfounded charge of theft."
Next, yes ... I should have read the article before assuming that the insurance fraud was Medicare/Medicaid related (it almost always is); but, maybe you should refrain from commenting if you cannot comprend what I actually wrote?
{See? I can be a dick, too.}
Oh Yeah, Welcome to DU!
ROBROX
(392 posts)I guess some GOP type people got together to get some extra money creatively by recruiting healthy people to get creative scares and cash.
Only those beautiful people can come up with a crime that may be occurring nationally. Those doctors do share their plans so others can profit.
Mr.Bill
(24,319 posts)to be governor of Florida.
SoapBox
(18,791 posts)Last edited Tue Nov 27, 2012, 02:50 AM - Edit history (1)
And this should be done across the country...pick up this scum, that is costing ALL of us, especially seniors.
Ship these dirty thieves off to Gitmo.
Hekate
(90,793 posts)Left Coast2020
(2,397 posts)Since when did a paper start using vocabularly like that?
Is it the same as
quakerboy
(13,921 posts)Republican politicians are tied to this one? And did any Democrats join them?