Biblical Name No Shield Against Fraud Charge

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP
Contact

On May 2 a New Orleans federal jury found that Psalms 23 DME, LLC—its Biblical name notwithstanding–was part of a fraud scheme that illegally billed Medicare $3.2 million.

In 2013 the government indicted Psalms 23 owner Tracy Brown and a colleague for a fraud scheme that involved billing Medicare for wheelchairs and other DME that wasn’t medically necessary or wasn’t delivered or both.  The scheme included paying marketers to find physicians to write false prescriptions and paying the physicians, as well.  According to the indictment, Psalms 23 submitted $3.2 million in false bills and received about $2 million.

The jury convicted Tracy on 18 counts: nine of health care fraud, seven of paying illegal kickbacks, one of conspiracy to commit fraud, and one of conspiracy to pay illegal kickbacks.  According to press reports, the Department of Justice says that sentencing is scheduled for August 10.

Psalms 23 famously opens with the line, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”  Tracy put those last four words into action.

The case is United States v. Tracy Richardson, No. 2:13-cr-00243-SRD-DEK (E.D. La. 2016).

 

DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.

© Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP | Attorney Advertising

Written by:

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP
Contact
more
less

PUBLISH YOUR CONTENT ON JD SUPRA NOW

  • Increased visibility
  • Actionable analytics
  • Ongoing guidance

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP on:

Reporters on Deadline

"My best business intelligence, in one easy email…"

Your first step to building a free, personalized, morning email brief covering pertinent authors and topics on JD Supra:
*By using the service, you signify your acceptance of JD Supra's Privacy Policy.
Custom Email Digest
- hide
- hide