Friday, November 1, 2024

Brief Blog: Texas Doctor, Ten-Year Sentence, $34M Fraud; $30 per scrip

According to the US Department of Justice, a Texas doctor was sentenced in October 2024 to 10 years in prison with regards to $34M in "a scheme to defraud Medicare."   Claims involved genetic testing as well as DME.

See the DOJ press release here:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/doctor-sentenced-54m-medicare-fraud-scheme

To quote the DOJ,

From August 2018 through April 2019 [9 months], Canchola received approximately $30 in exchange for each doctor’s order he signed authorizing DME and cancer genetic test orders that were not legitimately prescribed, not needed, or not used — totaling more than $466,000 in kickbacks. The doctor’s orders Canchola signed were used to submit more than $54 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare.

The press release indicates a period of two years from pleading guilty (October 2022) to sentencing (October 2024).