Toe Myint, MD, a physician from Bloomfield Hills, Mich., was sentenced to 72 months in prison and ordered to pay $3.1 million for his role in a $4.2 million Medicare fraud scheme, according to a joint Department of Justice and Department of Health and Human Services news release.
Dr. Myint was convicted by a jury in January for conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud. Dr. Myint was the physician at Sacred Hope Center, a Southfield, Mich., clinic that purported to specialize in providing infusion therapy to Medicare beneficiaries. Dr. Myint signed patient files ordering infusions and injections of corticosteroids and other medications, despite being aware that the patients did not need the drugs and that Medicare was being billed for the drugs.
Additionally, patients were not referred to Sacred Hope Center or Dr. Myint by their real physicians for any legitimate purpose, but rather were recruited to come to the clinic through the payment of kickbacks. Between Oct. 2006 and March 2007, Dr. Myint and his co-conspirators caused more than $4.2 million in false and fraudulent claims to be submitted to the Medicare program for services supposedly provided by Dr. Myint at Sacred Hope. Medicare actually paid more than $3.1 million of those claims.
A patient recruiter, Terrence Hicks, who served as a patient recruiter for the clinic was also recently sentenced to 40 months in prison and more than $4.9 million, to be paid jointly with other co-defendants, for his role in the same scheme. Mr. Hicks also worked at a second, related infusion clinic, called Xpress Center, which billed an additional $2.3 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare.
Read the DOJ/HHS release on Toe Myint.
Dr. Myint was convicted by a jury in January for conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud. Dr. Myint was the physician at Sacred Hope Center, a Southfield, Mich., clinic that purported to specialize in providing infusion therapy to Medicare beneficiaries. Dr. Myint signed patient files ordering infusions and injections of corticosteroids and other medications, despite being aware that the patients did not need the drugs and that Medicare was being billed for the drugs.
Additionally, patients were not referred to Sacred Hope Center or Dr. Myint by their real physicians for any legitimate purpose, but rather were recruited to come to the clinic through the payment of kickbacks. Between Oct. 2006 and March 2007, Dr. Myint and his co-conspirators caused more than $4.2 million in false and fraudulent claims to be submitted to the Medicare program for services supposedly provided by Dr. Myint at Sacred Hope. Medicare actually paid more than $3.1 million of those claims.
A patient recruiter, Terrence Hicks, who served as a patient recruiter for the clinic was also recently sentenced to 40 months in prison and more than $4.9 million, to be paid jointly with other co-defendants, for his role in the same scheme. Mr. Hicks also worked at a second, related infusion clinic, called Xpress Center, which billed an additional $2.3 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare.
Read the DOJ/HHS release on Toe Myint.