Suburban Chicago Doctor Sentenced to Federal Prison and Fined $1 Million for Health Care Fraud

CHICAGO — A suburban Chicago doctor has been sentenced to a federal prison term and fined $1 million for submitting fraudulent claims to Medicare and a private insurer.

JOHN A. GREAGER II, 75, of Hinsdale, Ill., pleaded guilty earlier this year to a health care fraud charge.  U.S. District Judge Robert W. Gettleman imposed the fine and a 6-month prison sentence after a hearing Tuesday in federal court in Chicago.

Greager owned and operated Cancer Therapy Associates S.C., in Lombard, Ill.  From 2015 to 2021, Greager caused fraudulent claims to be submitted to Medicare and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois falsely stating that mole-removal procedures had been provided to patients on multiple dates.  In actuality, Greager knew that those services were not provided as billed.  Greager had removed multiple moles on a single date, but the procedures were billed as though they were removed on separate dates to maximize reimbursement from Medicare and BCBS.  Greager admitted that he knew insurers paid more for moles removed on separate dates than multiple moles on a single date.  Medicare and Blue Cross Blue Shield ultimately paid Greager approximately $1.7 million as a result of his scheme.

To conceal his fraudulent conduct, Greager stored moles onsite at his office and delayed sending them for pathology testing.  As a result, the pathology reports made it appear as though Greager had removed the moles on separate dates.  Greager’s conduct delayed critical testing on moles that he removed for serious illnesses, including cancer.  Greager also created fake patient charts, including pre-operative and post-operative notes that indicated he performed mole-removal procedures on dates when he was not in Illinois.  Medicare conducted an audit of Greager’s patient charts, prompting Greager to instruct his staff to create false records to hide the fact that he committed health care fraud.

The sentence was announced by Morris Pasqual, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Robert W. “Wes” Wheeler, Jr., Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI; Mario Pinto, Special Agent-in-Charge of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General; Irene Lindow, Special Agent-in-Charge of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General in Chicago; and Amy K. Parker, Special Agent-in-Charge of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management Office of the Inspector General.  The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jared Hasten and Virginia Hancock.