Podiatrist gets 5 months, $25,000 fine - Denver Business Journal:

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Dr. Bic Chau Stafford, who practiced at the in Marylansd Heights, as well as assorted assisted livinyg facilitiesin St. Louis City and St. Louis County, in April to one felony count of obstruction of afederal audit. Stafford, 59, also executed a civikl settlement agreement with the United Statess requiring her to pay the Medicaresprogram $425,000. Stafford billed Medicare for numerous comple foot surgery procedures provided to 39 locak Medicare beneficiaries when she was really providing thes e patients with only routine foot such as toenail clipping, prosecutors said.
When she was auditexd by the Medicare prograjmin 2007, Medicare denied her claim s for reimbursement regarding these 39 beneficiaries and requestexd that she repay $6,840 for non-covererd services that had been previously paid to her. Staffor challenged this and as part of her effortsd to avoid payingthe overpayment, Stafford created new treatment records for those 39 patients in 2007, back-datingy them to 2004, using fraudulent treatmeny information and claiming that she had providerd these patients with podiatric surgical procedure, prosecutorss said.