Two Lady Doctor/Insurance Thieves Steal Tons of Insurance Money; Now Behind Bars in Michigan
In the city of Detroit - which manages to churn out some of the most outrageous doctor criminals in the nation - yet another healthcare scamster has been nailed: this one for her part in what federal law enforcement officials say was a nearly $9,000,000 insurance theft scheme.
According to federal investigators, Doctor Millicent Traylor and her criminal buddies - including another MD - operated a massive fraud enterprise over a five-year time span that began in early 2011 and went on until they were handcuffed and carted off to jail in 2016.
Traylor was originally found guilty last May, on one charge of Healthcare Fraud Conspiracy; one charge of Conspiracy to pay and receive Healthcare Kickbacks; and 5 charges of Healthcare Fraud.
The trial revealed that Traylor, age 47, conspired to have Medicare billed for medical services that never happened. She and the co-conspirators would then create sham patient records and sign fake billing documents, to make it look like imaginary patient treatments were real.
Traylor would also routinely forge the names of other doctors on prescriptions for narcotics, such as oxycodone.
"The evidence proved that Traylor, whose medical license had already been revoked for previous miscreancy, posed as a legitimate physician for several different companies, providing services that were medically unnecessary and were billed to Medicare as if they were provided by a licensed physician." (U.S. Department of Justice press release)
U.S. District Judge Robert Cleland sentenced the wayward MD to a 135-month federal prison sentence last Thursday.
Traylor's co-conspirators - Doctor Christina Kimbrough, Jacklyn Price and Muhammad Qazi - had already confessed to the conspiracy. Kimbrough, age 39, of Canton, was sentenced to 27 months in prison. Qazi, age 48, of Oakland Township, was sentenced to 42 months. Price, age 34, of Shelby, has not yet been sentenced.
This case was prosecuted by the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, which operates nationwide and has arrested 3900 defendants for stealing at least $13,000,000,000 from Medicare.