A clinic falsely diagnosed kids with mental health disorders. Now its ex-CEO faces prison.
A former health clinic CEO was convicted Friday of defrauding Medicaid in a scheme that involved providing fake psychotherapy services and false mental health disorder diagnoses to children, federal prosecutors announced.
Victor Clark Kirk,73,was convicted of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and health care fraud for violations that occurred while he was the head of St. Gabriel Health Clinic Inc., a nonprofit in Louisiana that provided care to Medicaid recipients and to a local school district, the Department of Justice announced.
Under the direction of Kirk, Medicaid reimbursed the clinic approximately $1.8 million for services fraudulently billed as group psychotherapy from 2011 to 2015, court documents show.
St. Gabriel Health Clinic staff provided educational and character development services to entire classrooms at schools in the Iberville Parish School Board district, near Baton Rouge.
“This was done despite the fact that Medicaid, and other healthcare benefit programs, specifically excluded educational services from coverage,” a 2019 indictment reads.
To receive reimbursement, the clinic would bill the educational services to Medicaid as group psychotherapy, prosecutors said. Kirk directed his practitioners to devise “progress notes,” indicating that some students required psychotherapy, and even falsely diagnose some students with mental health disorders, according to court documents.
Parents were not notified by the clinic that their kids had been diagnosed with mental health disorders even though the diagnoses could remain on their medical records for years, the indictment states.
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Kirk faces up to 10 years in prison for each count. He is set to be sentenced in January, the DOJ said.
USA TODAY's request for comment to Kirk’s attorney was not immediately returned Monday.
A message left at St. Gabriel Health Clinic was not immediately returned Monday.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ex-health clinic CEO convicted of Medicaid fraud by federal jury
