Medical Billing Network Doctor pleads guilty to Medicare fraud medical billing,medical billing fraud,billing audit,Medicare

Doctor pleads guilty to Medicare fraud

Published: 2010-07-18 16:56:50
By: COURTNEY PERKES and RACHANEE SRISAVASDI | ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER | April 15, 2010

A prominent Orange County cancer doctor has agreed to plead guilty to charges of defrauding Medicare and other insurers of up to $1 million for injectable cancer medications that never were provided, federal prosecutors said Thursday.

Dr. Glen R. Justice was director of the cancer center at Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center in Fountain Valley until he retired April 9, hospital spokeswoman Debra Culver said. He also recently left his position as head of Pacific Coast Hematology/Oncology Medical Group.

"Since this is related to his private practice, we don't have much more comment," Culver said.

Justice, 65, of Corona del Mar was charged Wednesday with five counts of health care fraud.

According to the plea agreement, he defrauded federally funded and private health insurers from 2004 to 2009, including Medicare, Blue Shield and Blue Cross. Justice billed for providing injectable cancer medications, but patients never received them or they received less-expensive drugs, according to the agreement.

In 2006, the Register reported that the FBI raided Justice's office, but authorities would not say why. Earlier this month, he was featured in the Register for his recent trip to Haiti to treat earthquake victims.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Justice continued to commit fraud after the search of his office and after being advised by staff not to do so. The estimated losses to insurance companies is $400,000 to $1 million.

He is scheduled to be arraigned in the case May 3. He faces a statutory maximum of 50 years in prison, a $1.25 million fine and three years' probation, according to the plea agreement. According to the agreement, prosecutors will recommend a sentence of probation instead of jail time.

Justice's San Clemente lawyer David Wiechert issued a statement saying Justice is "ashamed and repentant about his billing transgressions."

"Dr. Justice is committed to return to the government every penny that it is rightfully owed. He further hopes that he is permitted to continue to do what he does best, namely, keeping cancer patients alive and pain-free for as long as humanly possible."

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