BEAUMONT, TX—A 75-year-old Beaumont doctor has been sentenced to federal prison for health care fraud violations in the Eastern District of Texas, announced U.S. Attorney John M. Bales today.

John Q. A. Webb, Jr., now living in Houston, pleaded guilty on July 23, 2014 to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison today by U.S. District Judge Ron Clark.

According to information presented in court, from January 2008 to December 2011, Webb, while he owned, operated and managed Beaumont Medical Clinic on Eastex Freeway in Beaumont, conspired with his office manager to have unlicensed individuals treat patients and then bill health care providers as if Webb had personally provided the services. To execute the scheme, Webb would allow unlicensed staff to prescribe controlled substances to patients when he was not on the premises and allowed his office manager to distribute the controlled substances directly to patients. Investigators have determined that the total amount of loss in this case for which Webb is responsible is $328,238.41. Programs suffering losses as a result of this scheme are Medicare, Medicaid, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Aetna. Webb was indicted by a federal grand jury on Dec. 5, 2013.

This case was investigated by the Texas Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, Department of Health and Human Services, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. This case was prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Catherine Levacy Cockrell.