Often seen as a symbol of authority and professionalism, the white lab coat frequently is conferred on new students during a ceremony held at the very beginning of medical school. The tradition began in the late 1800s, when trained surgeons, followed by physicians not too long thereafter, began wearing white lab coats as a way to distinguish themselves from the fraudulent health care providers who pawned miracle cures and did not practice traditional, evidence-based medicine. There was no uniform for fraudster doctors of the 1800’s but there is one now- the black and white striped union suit.
On July 10, 2022, a federal jury convicted Jankowski, a doctor of Summit Medical Group in Dearborn Heights, of running a $35 million pill mill that prosecutors say not only stole money from the government and private insurers but fed America’s opioid addiction.
According to evidence presented at trial, Jankowski wrote medically unnecessary prescriptions for highly addictive pain pills, including Oxycontin, Oxycodone, morphine, hydrocodone, and Xanax. Jankowski prescribed more than 1.7 million pain-related pills for no legitimate medical purpose in exchange for money. He used his access to opioids to lure patients, who were attracted to his practice by the easy access to pills.
Jankowski would then submit false insurance claims asserting that he had provided necessary treatment to these patients. He received more than $29.3 million from the auto and private insurance companies he conned, and more than $6 million from Medicare and Medicaid.
Jankowski is not the first doctor turned fraudster/drug dealer in Michigan. Over the last five years more than 65 other doctors in southeastern Michigan have been charged and/or convicted with running pill mill operations. Hope the ceremony to receive the uniform of a criminal at the State of Michigan Department of Corrections is as grand and emotional for Jankowski, as the ceremony to receive the white lab coat at Medical School was.
Jankowski will be sentenced on November 15, 2022.
The investigation was conducted by the FBI and the Department of Health and Human Services – Office of Inspector General.
Today’s Fraud of the Day is based on an article “Michigan physician convicted of drug and health care fraud charges” published by Click On Detroit on July 12, 2022
A physician was convicted by a federal jury in Detroit on 30 charges related to a $35 million controlled substance operation.David Jankowski, a 62-year-old man from Bingham Farms, faced the charges in connection to his operation of Summit Medical Group, a purported medical clinic formerly located in Dearborn Heights and Southfield.
According to the evidence presented at the two-month-long trial, Dr. Jankowski wrote medically unnecessary prescriptions for controlled substances such as Oxycontin, Oxycodone, morphine, hydrocodone, and Xanax.
