White Collar Criminal Defense Group

89 Charged With Health Care Fraud As Federal Government Cracks Down On Healthcare Fraud Across Country

On May 14, 2013, 89 people in 8 different cities, including 14 doctors and nurses, were charged for their roles in various health care fraud-related crimes.  The individuals charged allegedly participated in Medicare fraud schemes that deprived the federal government of approximately $223 million through false billings.  The charges, which included conspiracy to commit health care fraud, violations of the anti-kickback statute, and money laundering, were announced by Attorney General Eric Holder and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.  Holder and Sebelius stated that this was part of a nationwide takedown by the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, a joint initiative announced in May 2009 between the Department of Justice and HHS to prevent fraud nationwide.  

The charges are based on numerous fraudulent schemes involving various medical treatments and services, primary home health care, mental health services, psychotherapy, physical and occupational therapy, durable medical equipment and ambulance services.  Some of the individuals charged allegedly posed as doctors and wrote false prescriptions for drugs and psychotherapy, and in turn, falsely billed the government $12 million.  Other individuals are charged with bribing Medicare patients for their ID numbers, then using that information to bill for health care that was never performed or medically unnecessary. 

Attorney General Eric Holder stated that this “announcement marks the latest step forward in our comprehensive efforts to combat fraud and abuse in our health-care systems.”  The charges are being prosecuted and investigated by Medicare Fraud Strike Force teams comprised of attorneys from the Fraud Section of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, the United States Attorney’s Offices in the various districts where individuals were charged, and agents from the FBI-HHS-OIG and state Medicaid Fraud Control Units.

For Gosnell, Threat Of Execution Less Real Than It Seems

Now that a Philadelphia jury has convicted abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell of three counts of first-degree murder, the discussion (or at least that portion of it not consumed by abortion politics) has turned to Gosnell’s sentence.

Some reports have noted that Gosnell could face the death penalty, particularly because of the multiple murder convictions in this case.  But, as with many mainstream news reports that describe potential sentences by referring only to what the law allows, these stories often omit any discussion of whether Gosnell will ever be executed.  And on that score, the evidence suggests that he won’t.

Let’s assume Gosnell is sentenced to death (not a safe assumption by any means).  In 2010, the average time between sentence and execution for all inmates executed was 178 months, or just under 15 years.  In Pennsylvania, the waits can be even longer—the state has not executed anyone since 1999, and some inmates have been on death row since the mid-1980’s. 

Gosnell turned 72 in February.  The average 72-year-old American man could expect to live about 12 more years, as of 2007.  That number crept up to a little more than 13 years, as of 2012. 

So just looking at the actuarial tables—without taking account of specific health issues, the effects of prison conditions and other issues—it seems unlikely Gosnell will ever be executed.  Between direct review of a death sentence in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and collateral attacks on the sentence in state and federal court, it may be decades before the state could be in position to carry out the penalty. 

And there’s a good chance Gosnell won’t be around by the time that day arrives.