Bill Joe Taylor liked to do everything on his own it seems. He owned his own company consisting of multiple diagnostic laboratories and he apparently developed his own multimillion dollar health care scheme. And to top it off, he tried to be his own lawyer in court. Maybe, if he accepted some counsel offered to him somewhere along the way, he wouldn’t be facing up to 20 years in prison.
According to prosecutors, between February 2017 and May 2021, Taylor engaged in a scheme in connection with diagnostic laboratory testing, including urine drug testing and tests for respiratory illnesses during the COVID-19 pandemic that were medically unnecessary and ordered by medical providers who were present with patients. Taylor controlled and directed multiple diagnostic laboratories and used those labs to submit more than $100 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare. He received about $38 million in payments for the scheme. Eventually, someone in Health and Human Services began to question his claims and Taylor’s lavish life of real estate and luxurious automobiles came to an end when he was indicted in November of 2021.
But this fraudster wasn’t going down without a fight. After many changes in legal representation, he decided to do it on his own. On July 8, 2022, Taylor requested and was granted the right to represent himself in court. But despite getting his own desk and office chair to process all the evidence in the case, the six handwritten motions Taylor filed were denied and dismissed by the court. Taylor once again changed strategy and obtained legal counsel again. On October 27, 2022, Taylor pled guilty to one count of Conspiracy to Commit Healthcare Fraud and one count of Money Laundering.
Great job by Health and Human Services in this case.
Today’s “Fraud of the Day” is based on an article “Lavaca man pleads guilty to federal health care fraud charges Arkansas” published by NWA Democrat Gazette on October 28, 2022
A Lavaca man pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and one count of money laundering.
Billy Joe Taylor, 43, admitted from November 2017 to May 2021, he and co-conspirators submitted and received payment for thousands of Medicare claims totaling millions of dollars for lab tests never ordered by the referring medical provider nor done for the benefit of the patient on the claims, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Arkansas in Fort Smith.
