A Baton Rouge doctor and his billing supervisor are among more than 400 people caught up in what is being called “the largest federal health care fraud takedown operation in American history.”
Dr. John Eastham Clark of Baton Rouge and Charlene Anita Severio of Walker have been indicted on two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and health care fraud, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Middle District of Louisiana says. Clark faces two additional counts of health care fraud.
Billed as the 2017 National Health Care Fraud Takedown, people across 41 federal jurisdictions have been indicted on charges of health care fraud and related offenses. Federal, state and local law enforcement officials took part in the sting. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the unsealed federal indictments earlier today.
Clark and Severio are accused of being part of a $4.4 million fraud scheme in which the two allegedly submitted false claims to Medicare and private insurance companies on behalf of Louisiana Spine & Sports, a pain management company Clark co-owns. Federal agents raided the company’s office in 2015.
The two allegedly indicated that some minor surgical procedures occurred on days separate from patient visits and sought reimbursements for medically unnecessary quantitative urinalysis tests. It’s unclear if Clark and Severio have obtained legal representation. Neither could not be reached before this afternoon’s publication.
Keaton Copeland and Dorothy Delima, the owners of Express ACA, a Florida brokerage firm, are accused of submitting fraudulent health insurance applications to Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana.
Separately, Attorney General Jeff Landry says his office’s Medicare Fraud Unit arrested 19 individuals and obtained grand jury indictments against two as part of the national takedown.
Demarcus Holiday of Zachary and Debra Holiday Butler of Clinton are charged with state racketeering, criminal conspiracy to commit forgery, filing and maintaining false public records, theft by fraud and money laundering.
