Dallas Doctor Indicted in Kickback Scheme
| U.S. Attorney’s Office January 14, 2010 |
PLANO, TX—U.S. Attorney John M. Bales announced today that a 52-year-old Dallas doctor has been indicted on charges of receiving illegal kickbacks in the Eastern District of Texas.
HAROLD WAGNER, of DeSoto, Texas, was indicted by a federal grand jury on Jan. 14, 2010, charging him with seven counts of accepting illegal kickbacks.
According to information provided by prosecutors, Wagner is alleged to have accepted cash payments, also referred to as kickbacks, from a Plano based durable medical equipment supplier in return for recommending power wheelchairs for Medicare and Medicaid recipients that were his patients. It is a violation of Medicare and Medicaid rules for a treating physician to receive any compensation from a medical equipment supplier in return for referring patients for medical supplies.
If convicted, Wagner faces up to five years in federal prison.
This case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the Texas Attorney General's Office and is being prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Howard Blackmon.
A grand jury indictment is not evidence of guilt. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.