26 Doctors, Medical Professionals Facing Charges In Wide-Ranging Kickback Scheme
The charges allege Tanya and Christopher King, deemed as the masterminds of the scheme, recruited physicians who treated workers' compensation patients and gave them financial incentives to prescribe unnecessary tests and treatments.
Los Angeles Times:
26 Charged In $40-Million Southern California Medical Kickback Scheme
Prosecutors charged 26 doctors and other medical professionals Thursday in an alleged kickback scheme that may have defrauded up to 13,000 patients in California and netted the defendants roughly $40 million as they overcharged for medication or prescribed balms that had no known medical value. In a joint statement, Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas and State Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones said the plot was spearheaded by Tanya and Christopher King of Beverly Hills, the owners of two medical billing and management companies. (Queally, 4/20)
KPCC:
Beverly Hills Couple Targeted As Leaders Of Massive Workers' Comp Scam
The Orange County District Attorney has filed charges against 26 doctors, pharmacists and business owners in a crackdown on an alleged $40 million workers' compensation fraud that involved overbilling for unnecessary compound creams and urine tests. A Beverly Hills couple, Tanya Moreland King, 37, and Christopher King, 38, masterminded the complex scheme that enriched them and their co-conspirators for the treatment of more than 13,000 people between 2011 and 2015, according to complaints filed April 3. (Plevin and Faust, 4/20)
Modesto Bee:
Five Modesto Doctors Faces Charges In Broad Fraud And Kickback Scheme
Five Modesto doctors are among more than two dozen physicians, pharmacists, business owners and a physician assistant charged in a $40 million fraudulent medical billing and kickback scheme, authorities announced Thursday. State Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones and Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said a Beverly Hills couple are accused of masterminding a complex insurance fraud scheme of recruiting doctors and pharmacists to prescribe unnecessary treatment for workers compensation insurance patients. (Valine and Farrow, 4/20)
In other news from the courts —
Los Angeles Times:
University Of California Officials Will Ask Judge To Halt Alleged Health Fraud Scheme They Claim Stole Millions
The University of California is alleging that it’s uncovered a scheme that targeted hundreds of students through its student healthcare plan and cost the UC almost $12 million. In a complaint filed Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, the UC said the scheme used information from more than 500 students enrolled in its systemwide Student Health Insurance Plan that allowed doctors to write fraudulent medical prescriptions. The UC is seeking a temporary restraining order hoping to halt the practice and the people behind it. (Landa, 4/20)
KPCC:
Prescription Pain Cream Scam Stole $12 Million, According To University Of California
The University of California says it will notify hundreds of students who gave their private health insurance information to an alleged multimillion-dollar prescription medication scam, according to a statement issued Thursday. The university said it also plans to file a motion for a temporary restraining order against the alleged scammers on Friday in Los Angeles County Superior Court to shut down the scheme. (Bloom, 4/20)
KQED:
Judge Threatens To Fine California Prisons For Delayed Mental Health Treatment
California prison officials could face hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines a day if they can’t comply with a federal court order to eliminate delays in treatment for the most severely mentally ill inmates. U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller this week threatened to fine prison officials to get them to meet the terms of a 1995 settlement of a decades-old class-action lawsuit. (Pickoff-White and Small, 4/20)