A Detroit-area doctor has been sentenced to 180 months in prison for his role in a $26 million health care fraud that involved billing Medicare for nerve block injections that had never been provided and efforts to circumvent Medicare's investigation of the fraudulent scheme.
A co-conspirator who owned a medical billing company previously was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Johnny Trotter, M.D., 42, of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge George C. Steeh of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. The owner of the medical billing company, Elaine Lovett, 61, of Detroit, had been sentenced by Judge Steeh on September 26.
Judge Steeh ordered each defendant to pay $9,199,946 in restitution and scheduled a hearing tomorrow on forfeiture.
Trotter and Lovett were convicted in April 2017 after a four-week jury trial of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, and three counts of health care fraud.
According to the evidence presented at trial, from May 2008 until May 2014, Trotter and Lovett knowingly submitted fraudulent bills for services that they knew had not been provided, mainly nerve block injections.
Additionally, after Medicare imposed a requirement in 2009 that required Trotter's claims to undergo a medical review prior to payment, Trotter and Lovett conspired to circumvent Medicare's fraud investigation of Trotter by creating sham medical practices, the evidence showed. To continue to receive payment for services that were not provided, Trotter and Lovett concealed their involvement with these practices from Medicare, and instead recruited their family members and employees to serve as straw owners of the companies, the evidence further showed.
Steven A. Meyerowitz
Steven A. Meyerowitz, a Harvard Law School graduate, is the founder and president of Meyerowitz Communications Inc., a law firm marketing communications consulting company. He may be contacted at [email protected].