Colby Edward Joyner was a physician assistant and worked as an independent contractor for a physician staffing and telemedicine company. A company that found the comfort of online medical care too difficult to carry out apparently. In 2018 and 2019, Joyner signed fraudulent prescriptions for medically unnecessary genetic testing, specifically cancer genomic and pharmacogenetic testing, for over 600 Medicare beneficiaries residing in North Carolina. Beneficiaries, Joyner had never met, seen, nor treated. At best, he had brief telephone conversations with the patients. With some he had no interactions at all. Six hundred victims do not seem like much in the grand scheme of things, but small schemes can have big impacts. Joyner’s scheme resulted in the submission of more than $10 million in fraudulent reimbursement claims to Medicare.
The telemedicine company would send Joyner completed filled-out prescription forms for patients pre-selected for genetic testing. Joyner would then sign and return the forms, receiving $12-$15 for each consultation that he claimed to have performed. Seems like small pennies, but Joyner received $3.6 million for his participation. Small schemes but a big impact on the U.S. taxpayer!
To conceal that he was not the patient’s treating physician and that he did not conduct medical evaluations on them, Joyner falsified medical records in connection with the unnecessary prescriptions. And falsely certified that the genetic tests were medically necessary.
Last June, a federal jury convicted Joyner of health care fraud and of making false statements relating to health care matters. Joyner was sentenced to seventy-two months in prison and ordered to pay over $3.6 million in restitution.
Excellent job by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Charlotte Division and Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) in the investigation of this case.
Today’s Fraud of The Day is based on article “Charlotte area physician assistant convicted of fraud scheme involving genetic testing” published by the Queen City News on October 4, 2024.
A physician assistant has been sentenced for an alleged $10 million Medicare fraud scheme, according to Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.
Colby Edward Joyner, 37, of Monroe, was sentenced to 6 years and prison and ordered to pay more than $3.6 million in restitution. This is after he was convicted last June of healthcare fraud and making false statements related to healthcare matters. According to court documents, Joyner worked as a physician assistant in the Charlotte area between 2018 and 2019. He was hired as an independent contractor for a physician staffing and telemedicine company.
