Trust

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Medicare enrollment form and glasses

Roger Staubach said, “If you don’t have trust inside your company, then you can’t transfer it to your customers.” But with Dr. Kenneth Mitchel, there should be little trust in him left by his business partner and even less from the U.S. Medicare Program, after he stole the identity of one in order to steal from the other.

Back in 2015, Dr. Kenneth Mitchel had his own privileges to participate in the Medicare program revoked. After his revocation, he then convinced his partner to enroll in Medicare and assist him in opening a new clinic called Urban Health Care Group PLLC. Once the new business was set up, Mitchell continued to bill Medicare for fraudulent services just as he had prior to his revocation, only now exclusively under the name of his partner.

Upon law enforcement’s discovery of this scheme, Medicare suspended payments to Urban Health Care Group PLLC. Not to be deterred from stealing money from Medicare for a second time, Mitchell subsequently submitted false statements to Medicare regarding the fraud allegations (again, under his partner’s name) in an effort to undermine the government’s investigation. This apparently was in hopes of ultimately ensuring that Medicare would pay for the fraudulent billings.

Mitchel failed again. On September 16, 2022, A federal jury convicted Mitchell his role in executing a $1.8 million scheme to defraud Medicare by billing for services under another doctor’s name after Medicare revoked his privileges to participate in the program.

Mitchel is currently scheduled to be sentenced on January 26, 2023, but faces up to 20 years in prison.  Hopefully Mitchel won’t attempt to defraud Medicare under a third identity before then.

Well done by the Health and Human Services in stopping Mitchel not once but twice.

Today’s Fraud of the Day is based on an article “Oakland County doctor convicted of $1.8 million healthcare fraud scheme” published by Click On It Detroit on

An Oakland County podiatrist was convicted for his role in devising and executing a $1.8 million fraud scheme. Dr. Kenneth Mitchell tried to defraud Medicare by billing for services under a different doctor’s name, Dr. Mitchell himself had his privileges to participate in the program revoked by Medicare.

The 60-year-old was convicted by a federal jury for falsification of records designed to prevent detection of this fraud and aggravated identity theft for reporting to Medicare under the name of another physician.

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Larry Benson, Senior Director of Strategic Alliances, LexisNexis Risk Solutions - Government

Larry Benson is responsible for developing strategic partnerships and solutions for the government vertical. His expertise focuses on how government programs are defrauded by criminal groups, and the approaches necessary to prevent them from succeeding.

Mr. Benson has 30 years of experience in sales and business development. Before joining LexisNexis® Risk Solutions, he spent 12 years founding and managing two software technology startups. During the 1990s he spent 10 years as a Regional Director helping to grow a New England-based technology company from 300 employees to 7,000. He started his career with Martin Marietta Aerospace working on laser guided weapons and day/night vision systems.

A sought-after speaker and accomplished writer, Mr. Benson is the principal author of “Fraud of the Day,” a website dedicated to educating government officials about how criminals are defrauding government programs. He has co-authored WTF? Where’s the Fraud? How to Unmask and Stop Identity Fraud’s Drain on Our Government, and Data Personified, How Fraud is Changing the Meaning of Identity.

Benson holds a Bachelor of Science in Physics from Albright College, and earned two graduate degrees – a Master of Business Administration from Florida Institute of Technology, and a Master of Science in Engineering from Lehigh University.