Oklahoma Doctor Indicted for Health Care Fraud Committed While Practicing in New Orleans Area

NEW ORLEANS, LA—DR. GREGORY KHOURY, age 55, a resident of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, was indicted by a federal grand jury in a 48-count indictment with over $1 million in health care fraud, announced U.S. Attorney Jim Letten.

According to today’s indictment, between 1999, until about June of 2006, DR. GREGORY KHOURY, defrauded Medicare, the Federal Employee Health Benefit Plan (FEHBP) and its associated health care benefit providers, Blue Cross and Blue Shield (BCBS), Tricare, the health care provided for active and retired men and women in our armed services and their families, and Travelers Insurance Company, who processed worker’s compensation claims.

Specifically, the indictment alleges KHOURY fraudulently submitted claims to Medicare, FEHBP, BCBS, Tricare and Travelers for patients who were not physically present in his office. Part of the scheme was that KHOURY’S billing often represented that he was spending well over eight hours with one patient at a time. Instead, the indictment alleges that KHOURY discussed the absent patient’s condition with a family member or other related or interested person.

Additionally, according to the indictment, KHOURY also met with an interested person or family member instead of the patient and falsely billed Medicare, FEHBP, BCBS, Tricare and Travelers for services he claimed to have performed for the absent patient. At the same time, he falsely billed the insurers for services he claimed he performed for the person while he was speaking about the absent patient. It is charged that KHOURY then submitted fraudulent claims as if those services had been rendered to the absent patient.

As a result of the alleged fraud, KHOURY was paid approximately $1,357,618.14 he was not entitled to receive.

U.S. Attorney Letten reiterated that the indictment is merely a charge and that the guilt of the defendant must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Office of Inspector General and Defense Criminal Investigative Service, with the cooperation of Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Louisiana. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Patrice Harris Sullivan and Jordan Ginsberg.