Telemedicine Scam NP Pleads Guilty to Role in $136M Medicare Fraud Conspiracy
There is a famous saying in medicine, as terrrible as it may be, that “Wherever there is a pig there is a _________.” (I won’t finish it here).
Well, here is my new saying:
Wherever there is a telemedicine company opportunity there is a high probability for fraud.
This site has been critical of many online medical companies. You know the ones like Cerebral, with its army of NPs, that handed out ADD meds like candy. Well, there are other ways to be unethical. The nurse practitioner could own the company! Check this out:
According to court documents, Jean Wilson, 52, of Richmond Hill, Georgia, was a licensed nurse practitioner in New Jersey. Wilson owned two purported telemedicine companies, Advantage Choice Care LLC (ACC) and Tele Medcare LLC (Tele Medcare), and two orthotic brace suppliers, Southeastern DME and Choice Care Medical. Wilson, through these companies, recruited medical professionals who were bribed to sign prescriptions for Medicare beneficiaries for orthotic braces and prescription drugs that were medically unnecessary, ineligible for Medicare reimbursement, or not provided as represented. In certain instances, Wilson only paid providers when they signed orthotic brace orders. The medical professionals Wilson recruited would often sign the orthotic brace orders based solely on a brief telephonic interaction with the beneficiary, or no interaction at all. Wilson and the medical providers she retained frequently signed false and misleading documentation to support claims to Medicare.
I hope she goes to jail for a while. We will follow-up on the exact sentencing but here is what the article said:
Wilson pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud. She is scheduled to be sentenced on July 18 and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. As part of her plea, she has agreed to pay over $66 million in restitution to Medicare and the IRS. A federal district judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
It is interesting that she copped a plea. Is it because she is turning in those lowlife doctors she bribed? Let’s cross our fingers they go to jail too.
Thankfully, she got caught but we have been seeing Medicare scams for years that pop up and then disappear. It’s like Whack-a-Mole. Adding telemedicine and NPs to this mix just made it go turbo.
Here is the future of medicine as i predict:
telemedicine plus Dr Google plus AI
In Oregon, hard drugs were legalized and recreational pot is everywhere.
So everyone will be on drugs and they do not need to waste time in the waiting room. And think of all the money saved on those expensive health insuarnce premiums…..just skip it!!!!
Not sure about surgical issues……..I heard most appendicitis can be treated with antibiotics – don’t know if that is true.
There should be less symptomatic chest pain if you are smoking dope or on other drugs.
I also find YOUTUBE helpful if my toilet is running, and i know there are a lot of REAL doctors on YOUTUBE…..I am not sure if the quacks have as many followers………heck you can even get free medical advice from many pharmacists
The NP and henchmen doctors are scum, and should be nailed.
But NONE of this would have been possible without the existence of Medicare.
The gomers and retirees can get on here and defend it all they like, but it is the wellspring of a huge portion of what went wrong (permanently) with medicine. The program has been a financial bust since 1972, would bankrupt the nation even without the other bipartisan idiocies we have accepted, is not a legitimate federal role, and is nothing but a lousy Ponzi scheme. Try relaying any of these facts to your average resident in The Villages, and the fact that they are by definition being subsidized in their lifestyle, making them in fact welfare recipients, and their heads explode as they scream that you want them to die.
Of course it invites corruption, because at its core, that is what that lousy program is. But like the shuffleboard set, most doctors won’t admit the facts either.
Ya know, running a practice is so hard, so exhausting that it is all I can do to keep my head above water and not go insane. I wish I HAD the time and energy to perpetrate a massive fraud.