The owner of a medical clinic in Detroit was sentenced to more than 13 years in prison and ordered to pay millions of dollars in restitution after running an $8.9 million health care fraud scheme.
Jacklyn Price, 34, of Shelby, was the last of four co-conspirators to be sentenced in the case, according to a news release from the United States Department of Justice.
Price, who owned Medicare providers operating out of the Samaritan Center on the city's east side, was ordered along with the other defendants to pay a total of $6.35 million in restitution, and to forfeit the same amount, for their roles in Medicare fraud from 2011 to 2016.
Price was sentenced to 160 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Robert Cleland of the Eastern District of Michigan. According to prosecutors, Price and the co-conspirators produced fraudulent Medicare claims for home health care and other services that were "procured through the payment of kickbacks, were not medically necessary, were not actually provided, or were provided by an unlicensed physician," the release said.
Millicent Traylor, M.D., 47, of Detroit was sentenced Sept. 27 to 135 months in prison; Muhammad Qazi, 48, of Oakland Township, was sentenced Aug. 27 to 42 months; and Christina Kimbrough, M.D., 39, of Canton Township, was sentenced Sept. 26 to 27 months.
All four were convicted of committing health care fraud under Metro Mobile Physicians in Detroit, as well as the entities Patient Choice Internal Medicine PC in Detroit and United Home Health Care Inc. in Ferndale, according to court
Price incorporated Metro Mobile Physicians and Patient Choice Internal Medicine, both operating at the Samaritan Center at 5555 Conner St., while Qazi incorporated United Home Health Care, at 751 E. Nine Mile Road.
They were found guilty of "unlawfully enriching themselves," by submitting false claims to Medicare, bribing Medicare beneficiaries with cash and narcotics for the use of their Medicare numbers for fraudulent claims and diverting proceeds for personal use, the documents say.
The FBI investigated the case as part of the Medicaid Fraud Strike Force, which began in 2007 and has charged nearly 4,000 defendants across the county who have billed Medicare for more than $14 billion collectively.
"Detroit clinic owner gets 13 years for role in $8.9 million health care fraud" originally appeared on Crain's Detroit Business.