New Orleans Physician Charged with Conspiracy to Commit Health Care Fraud
| U.S. Attorney’s Office September 15, 2011 |
DR. ANTHONY STEPHEN JASE, age 41 and a resident of New Orleans, Louisiana, was charged in a one-count bill of information for conspiracy to commit health care fraud, announced U.S. Attorney Jim Letten.
DR. JASE is a physician with offices in New Orleans, Louisiana. The bill of information charges that DR. JASE certified that certain Medicare patients qualified for power wheelchairs and orthotic equipment for patients he never saw. As a result of fraudulent claims Medicare paid $280,323 to a durable medical equipment supplier.
On July 7, 2010, DR. JASE was indicted in the Middle District of Louisiana on several counts of health care fraud, conspiracy to solicit and pay health care kickbacks, and substantive counts of paying and receiving illegal kickbacks, in connection with a $1 million scheme to defraud the Medicare program by submitting fraudulent claims for durable medical equipment.
If convicted, DR. JASE faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years, a fine of $250,000.00, and three years of supervised release following any term of imprisonment.
U.S. Attorney Letten reiterated that the bill of information is merely a charge and that the guilt of the defendant must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
The case was investigated by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrice Harris Sullivan.