Medicare Fraud Doc’s Unrepentant
Medicare Fraud
Dozens of physicians who received Medicare payments in 2012 had been thrown out of state Medicaid programs, been indicted or charged with fraud, or even settled allegations of overbilling Medicare itself, according to a ProPublica analysis of recently released doctor payment data.
The analysis of payments made under Medicare Part B, which was released last week for the first time in 35 years, revealed that outlays to sanctioned health care providers exceeded $6 million in 2012. ProPublica‘s Charles Ornstein offers a look are some of the physicians who continued to collect from the agency after being flagged by law enforcement or other oversight agencies:
- Pain doctor Lawrence Eppelbaum was indicted in March 2011 on charges of incenting patients to be treated at his Roswell, Ga., clinic by paying their travel expenses through a charity he controlled. Medicare paid Eppelbaum $500,000 to treat 80 patients in 2012.
- Michigan ophthalmologist Matthew Burman was suspended from the state’s Medicaid program in 2009 after being convicted of criminal sexual misconduct. Three years later, Medicare paid Burman $379,000.
- Louisville physician Steven Stern and his practice paid $350,000 to settle allegations of overbilling Medicare in 2011. Specifically, Stern was accused of splitting vials of the rheumatoid arthritis drug Infliximab and billing Medicare as if a full vial was used for each patient. He received $3 million from Medicare in 2012, including $2 million for Infliximab infusions.
- New Orleans physician Anthony Jase pleaded guilty on two counts of Medicare fraud in October 2011, but he was paid $97,460 in Medicare reimbursement in 2012. Last year, he was sentenced to 15 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $360,000 in restitution.
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