The professionals who devote their lives to fine-tune one skill usually have a greater chance of achieving excellence at what they do. NBA all-time leading scorer LeBron James knows how to shoot a basketball. Novak Djokovic won a record 24 Grand Slam men’s singles titles with a masterclass backhand. And Dr. Ronald David Dean had a signature like no other. A fine-tuned skill used in multiple schemes to rob the U.S. taxpayer in more than $39 million in fraudulent Medicare billings. That is a skill.
Dean, a licensed physician, was paid by a telemedicine company to sign orders for durable medical equipment that patients did not need. First scheme achieved thanks to Dean’s signature! The telemedicine company also used Dean’s information and signature to prescribe unneeded and unnecessary covid tests to patients. Who didn’t jump on the easiest fraud opportunity in the world? Easy or not, scheme # 2 couldn’t have happened without Dean’s signature. For scheme # 3, Dean broke out on his own and charged Medicare, CHAMPVA and the Railroad Retirement Board programs for the supposed telemedicine office visits that did not occur. These schemes ran from about January 2022 until July 2023. In record time, Dean’s orders resulted in false billing to government health care programs of more than $39 million.
On July 18, 2024, Ronald David Dean pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Sentencing was set for Dec. 4.
Shout out to all the departments involved in solving this case in Montana. The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General (VA-OIG), Railroad Retirement Board Office of Inspector General and FBI. Well done.
Today’s Fraud of The Day is based on article “Whitefish doctor admits defrauding Medicare and other federal health programs” published by WURL8 on July 18, 2024.
A Whitefish physician accused in connection with alleged schemes to defraud government health programs admitted on Wednesday to falsely billing Medicare and other health programs in a telemedicine scheme that resulted in more than $39 million in false billing, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said today.
The defendant, Ronald David Dean, 64, had an initial appearance and pleaded guilty to an information filed on June 24 charging him with conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The charges are part of the Justice Department’s 2024 National Health Care Fraud Enforcement Action. Dean faces a maximum of 10 years in prison, a $1 million fine and three years of supervised release.
