Houston Doctor Pleads Guilty to Medicare Fraud

Houston

A doctor has pleaded guilty to a scheme that resulted in $30 million in fraudulent billings to Medicare.

Dr. Callie Hall Herpin admitted at an April 6 hearing to selling Certificates of Medical Necessity and prescriptions for power chairs and medication, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas. According to a statement issued by the office:

Herpin admitted at the hearing that she and co-defendant Etta Mae Williams — who previously pleaded guilty to the charges, as well as a money laundering count — sold CMNs and prescriptions for power chairs and other DME to providers and marketers for approximately $200, receiving at least $184,000 in return.

The Texas doctor also said she did not examine all of the patients to determine their eligibility for the power chairs, adding that in many instances providers brought copies of the Medicare beneficiaries’ driver’s licenses and Medicare cards to the two defendants, who used the information to produce the CMNs. The pair wrote at least 920 fraudulent orders, resulting in Medicare billings of more than $30 million.

Herpin also stated that she and Williams wrote and sold at least 17,086 prescriptions for controlled substances, receiving at least $1.7 million in return.

Williams faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine on the money laundering count. Both Herpin and Williams face a maximum sentence of five years in prison and fines of $250,000 on each of the two conspiracy counts.