U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton announced that two doctors in North Texas have been charged with filing fraudulent medical claims and illegally dispensing hydrocodone.
What Happened?
Five counts of healthcare fraud, one offense of unlawful distribution of a controlled substance, and one count of conspiracy to conduct healthcare fraud were included in the Nov. 14 indictment against Desi Barroga, 51, and Deno Barroga, 51. Both of them might spend up to ten years in jail.
Court records state that the doctors ran a pain treatment clinic in Dallas where they prescribed large amounts of morphine, oxycodone, and hydrocodone to patients.
Patients would pick up their medicines at a brief monthly office visit. The doctors would falsely declare to the patients’ insurance companies that they had received dozens of corticosteroid injections during those monthly appointments, while in fact the patients had received few or none at all. One class of steroid medicine is called corticosteroid.
Payment For Illegal Procedure
Source: Cbs News
According to USAO, medical professionals would simulate an injection by placing a needle on the patient’s body without really puncturing the skin. Patients would simply receive a little amount of shots, if any at all.
The defendants erroneously claimed in many papers that they gave the patient more than 80 shots in a single day of care. In addition, fictitious medical records were produced in tandem with the injections.
The doctors received about $12 million in payment for these illegal procedures, despite billing health care benefit programs for nearly $50 million.
