A Texas doctor was sentenced today to serve 63 months in prison for conspiring to commit health care fraud by falsifying plans of care for Medicare beneficiaries, including patients whom he did not treat, as part of a $17.3 million Medicare fraud scheme.
Today’s sentence was announced by Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson of the Southern District of Texas; Special Agent in Charge Stephen L. Morris of the FBI’s Houston Field Office; Special Agent in Charge Mike Fields of the Dallas Regional Office of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG), Office of Investigations; and the Texas Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.
Ben Harris Echols, 63, of Houston, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Sim Lake of the Southern District of Texas. In addition to his prison term, Echols was sentenced to serve three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $2,918,830 in restitution.
After a four-day trial, a jury convicted Echols on Dec. 13, 2012, of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and six counts of false statements relating to health care matters.
According to evidence presented at trial, Echols was a physician practicing in the Houston area. Evidence showed that Echols signed plans of care for Medicare beneficiaries so that fraudulent claims could be billed by home health care companies Family Healthcare Group Inc. and Houston Compassionate Care. Echols signed plans of care for Medicare beneficiaries who were not under his care and about whose conditions he had no knowledge. In many instances, Echols signed plans of care even though other doctors were listed as the attending physician on the documents.
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