Florida Suspends Medical License after $637,000 in Fraud

A Stuart obstetrician and gynecologist, licensed in Florida since 1999 with no previous professional discipline issues, recently had an emergency suspension of her physician’s license by the Florida Department of Health. Thankfully, none of her patient issues involved injury or death, but they did involves thousands of dollars.

The 48 year old physician received $637,000 from Blue Cross, Humana, Aetna, Cigna, United Healthcare, Medicare and Medicaid through her healthcare fraud scam. In addition to gynecology and obstetrics, she also treated urinary and fecal incontinence in order to rack up complex tests and procedures. She and her staff submitted multiple insurance claims for tests such as cystometrogram, uroflowmetry, voiding pressure studies, electromyography studies of anal/urethral sphincter and anorectal manometry.

She was convicted on 23 counts of healthcare fraud, 29 counts in total.

She pleaded guilty, and then wrote a letter to the court asking for leniency due to the fact she took responsibility for it as opposed to pointing fingers elsewhere. She begged for no prison time, only community service and taking away her ability to practice medicine and ability to bill government programs, pleading that this would allow her to stay with her children.

Her husband also wrote a letter to the court, stating she should be granted the requested leniency because she did not shy away from taking personal responsibility by blaming staff who had committed crimes or not followed office protocol and directions. 

Her sentence hearing takes place on Friday.