Virginia Beach Physician Found Guilty of Defrauding Medicare and Tricare
U.S. Attorney’s Office November 17, 2009 |
NORFOLK, VA—Ronald Poulin, M.D., 61, of Virginia Beach, Va., was found guilty today by a Norfolk federal court jury of one count of health care fraud, 26 counts of making false statements relating to health care matters, and one count of alteration of records to obstruct an investigation. Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, made the announcement after the jury returned its verdict. When he is sentenced by United States District Judge Mark S. Davis on March 15, 2010, Poulin faces a maximum of 10 years in prison for the health care fraud count, five years in prison for each count of making false statements related to health care, and 20 years in prison for the alteration of records count.
Poulin is an oncologist and hematologist with a medical practice located in Virginia Beach, Virginia. According to the evidence at trial, between January 2006 and August 2008, he filed several hundred false and fraudulent claims totaling $1.2 million with the federally funded programs Medicare and Tricare. The billing scheme involved three components: Poulin billed for a greater amount of chemotherapy drugs than patients actually received; split single-dose 40,000 unit vials of the anemia drug Procrit between two patients and billed as if each patient had received a full vial; and billed for patient office visits which never occurred.
In addition, after being served with administrative subpoenas by the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General and the Department of Defense, Office of Inspector General, directing him to produce certain patient and billing records as part of an investigation of his billing practices, Poulin altered the records to obstruct and influence the investigation.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, and the Department of Defense, Office of Inspector General. Assistant United States Attorneys Katherine Lee Martin and Alan M. Salsbury prosecuted the case for the United States.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/vae. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov or on https://pcl.uscourts.gov.