Practitioners

June 2007

In Massachusetts, a licensed practical nurse (LPN) was sentenced to 63 months in jail and ordered to pay $1,500 in fines and restitution for health care fraud and tampering with consumer products. While working at a nursing home, the LPN took pills that were prescribed to Medicaid patients for his own personal use. The investigation revealed that the LPN removed pills from blister cards, replaced them with pills that resembled what he took, and then used superglue to reattach the backing of the blister card.

June 2007

In Texas, a man was sentenced to 80 months incarceration and ordered to pay over $2 million for his involvement in a motorized wheelchair scheme. The man, who was found guilty after a 6-week trial, fraudulently marketed wheelchairs. As part of the scheme, the man transported over 500 Medicare beneficiaries from Louisiana to a Texas clinic. For each beneficiary he brought to the clinic, he received between $200 and $1,000 from various durable medical equipment suppliers. At the clinic, one of three doctors performed a psychiatric evaluation on beneficiaries and then signed certificates of medical necessity and prescriptions for wheelchairs.

June 2007

In California, a woman was sentenced to 1 year in a county jail and ordered to pay $112,000 in restitution for her scheme to embezzle Government funds. While employed as an accounting clerk with the California Prevention and Education Project (CAL-PEP), the woman issued 46 unauthorized CAL-PEP checks to herself and to another individual. A program that receives HHS funds, CAL-PEP provides a broad range of services to people affected by HIV/AIDS.