Fredericksburg doctor convicted in federal court for $70 million Medicare fraud scheme
A federal jury convicted a Fredericksburg doctor on Friday for a $70 million Medicare fraud scheme in which he signed thousands of prescriptions for braces and genetic tests that he said were medically necessary, oftentimes without even meeting the patients.
Evidence during the trial showed that 61-year-old David M. Young prescribed orthotic braces and genetic tests for more than 13,000 Medicare beneficiaries, some of whom were undercover agents, according to a news release sent by the U.S. Justice Department. In the prescriptions, Young said he had diagnosed each person, had plans to care for them and recommended that they receive additional care. However, he often never saw, spoke or treated the patients he wrote the prescriptions for, according to the Justice Department.
Through the thousands of false prescriptions, brace supply companies and laboratories billed Medicare more than $70 million. By signing the fraudulent claims, Young was paid about $475,000.
The jury convicted Young of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, which has a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. In addition, the jury found him guilty of three counts of false statements relating to health care matters, each of which carries a maximum of five years in prison. Young will be sentenced at a later date.
"We believe there were some jury instructions that should have been given and some witness testimony that shouldn’t have been permitted," Michael Clark, one of the attorneys who represented Young, said in an emailed statement.
Court records show that Young was indicted in September 2021 in the Dallas division of the Northern District of Texas federal district court.
Those charging documents also name four other people as co-conspirators who worked with Young to "unlawfully enrich themselves" through writing the fraudulent prescriptions from August 2016 to August 2019.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Fredericksburg doctor convicted for $70 million Medicare fraud
