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Nationwide federal health care fraud sweep results in 10 indictments in Kentucky


A health care fraud sweep in the Western District of Kentucky, including three health care providers, is part of the nationwide health care fraud takedown led by the Justice Department.
 
Attorney General Jeff Sessions called the sweep the largest ever health care fraud enforcement action by the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, involving more than 590 charged defendants across 58 federal districts, including more than 150 doctors, nurses and other licensed medical professionals, for their alleged participation in health care fraud schemes involving more than $2 billion in false billings. 


U.S. Attorney Russell Coleman, the top federal prosecutor for the western half of Kentucky, on Thursday announced indictments against 10 people — including a doctor, a psychiatrist and a chiropractor. Authorities say two others are accused of diverting thousands of doses of powerful opioid pain pills in a state struggling with a drug overdose epidemic.


Two more are accused of operating “false-front” medical clinics that resulted in nearly $5 million in false medical billings. Another defendant is accused of running a “false-front” pharmacy to bill for prescriptions that patients never received.


Coleman says health care fraud amounts to theft and drug dealing. Drug Enforcement Administration special agent D. Christopher Evans says authorities won’t tolerate “drug dealers in lab coats.”


“The message we are sending is clear,” Evans said. “We will not tolerate drug dealers in lab coats.  If you’re a doctor and you’re prescribing dangerous narcotics in a reckless or irresponsible manner, we’re coming after you.”


Agents with the DEA and FBI partnered with Louisville Metro Police and others the last two weeks to conduct raids on medical practices, Coleman said.


“Healthcare fraud is nothing more than theft and drug dealing, though using complex techniques on a large scale,” he said.


The complex operation in Kentucky from the federal law enforcement agencies drew kudos from Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear.


“This operation by our federal partners and my office is critical each year in stopping those who would harm Kentuckians and our health care system, especially those accused of unlawful distribution and dispensing of controlled substances given our state’s drug epidemic,” Beshear said.


Kentuckians named in indictments on various charges were: psychiatrist Dr. Peter Steiner; chiropractor Dr. Bingston Crosby and Lacy Black; Dr. Chandra Dundumalla Reddy and his wife Vinodini Dundumalla Reddy; Osmaro Ruiz; Yesdel Acosta and Eduardo Chinea-Martinez; Brandon Gordon and Monica Berry.

Kentucky Today


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