Take a peak at the reviews on Dr. Ronald David Dean’s WebMD profile and you will see that you are going to get one star care or nothing at all. Either way, he is going to bill Medicare. And if the Department of Health and Human Services happened to check Dean’s reviews they might have gotten the heads that Dean was running a Medicare scam. The Office of Investigator General should dedicate a body to just reading WebMD reviews.
Starting in January of 2022, Dean and two unnamed co-conspirators devised a durable medical equipment and COVID-19 test scheme in which Dean worked as an independent contractor for the other two fraudsters. And he just signed the paperwork for their dirty work. One star doctor. Five star fraudster.
The two others provided Dean an unlimited supply unsigned prescriptions for the DME which he would electronically sign without seeing or communicating with the patients. For Covid-19 tests, Dean signed documents allowing the two others to order the over-the-counter Covid-19 tests in Dean’s name. The two others billed the government programs for the unnecessary DME’s and tests. None of which were requested by patients. Payments for those claims were sent to Dean, and he would send most of the money back to the two others. After he took his cut in the deal.
The entire conspiracy resulted in Dean and the two others billing Medicare, the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Railroad Retirement Board $39.6 million in fraudulent claims, of which the three programs paid out at least $18 million. On June 25, 2024, Dean entered into a plea agreement with the government which recommended a decrease in Dean’s offense level for accepting responsibility. And he is going to rat out everyone he knows in the process since he claims he can provide substantial assistance in other ongoing investigations. All is fair in fraud.
Today’s Fraud of The Day is based on article “Whitefish physician charged in multi-million-dollar Medicare billing fraud case” published by the Daily Montanan on June 25, 2024.
A Whitefish physician was charged Monday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Montana with conspiracy to commit wire fraud for allegedly helping facilitate about $39 million in fraudulent billing of Medicare and other federal benefits programs during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ronald David Dean entered into a plea deal with federal prosecutors in which he agreed to help the government continue its investigation into the fraud, according to federal court documents, and as part of the agreement will have to pay back around $780,500 in restitution to the Medicare program and two other federal programs.
