Iowa nurse pays $52,560 to settle million-dollar Medicare fraud case

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In exchange for less than $53,000, federal officials have agreed to settle civil claims against a Des Moines nurse accused of participating in a million-dollar scheme to defraud Medicare.

Ashley Brown, an advanced registered nurse practitioner, has paid $52,560 to the United States to resolve civil allegations that she violated federal law by signing hundreds of medically unnecessary prescriptions for expensive orthotic braces in exchange for kickbacks.

Timothy T. Duax, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa, said in a written statement that the settlement, which Brown fulfilled last week, reflects his office’s intent to “aggressively pursue” medical providers that seek to profit by outsourcing their medical decision-making.

The federal government had alleged that from April 17, 2020, to May 19, 2021, Brown knowingly submitted more than $1 million in false claims for payment to the taxpayer-funded program Medicare while working for a company called Barton Associates.

The Department of Justice alleged Brown did so by writing hundreds of prescriptions for orthotic braces that were not medically necessary. Several patients subsequently told investigators they did not know Brown, did not need the braces, and did not request the braces. Brown had even prescribed a brace for an Elkhart man whose left leg had been amputated years earlier, the DOJ alleged.

Brown reportedly spent as little as nine seconds reviewing the records of patients for Barton Associates before approving them for braces and in some cases had never had any contact with the patients. In return for each of her prescriptions, Brown allegedly collected what the government characterizes as a “kickback” of $20 per patient from Barton Associates, sometimes resulting in hundreds of dollars in income for a few minutes’ work.

Barton Associates was not a party to the lawsuit, and federal court records indicate there are no pending civil or criminal charges against the company. No one in the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa was available to take questions on the matter Monday morning.

In 2022, a Kentucky doctor agreed to pay $561,800 to resolve allegations that, while partnering with Barton, he violated the False Claims Act by submitting false claims to Medicare for unnecessary equipment.

Brown’s license is in good standing with the Iowa Board of Nursing, and she has no record of any disciplinary action against her license.

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