A physician from Clarksville, Tenn. was sentenced to seven years in prison after being convicted of more than a dozen healthcare fraud charges.
Samson Orusa, MD, 61, was convicted of billing federal health insurance programs for hundreds of medically unnecessary services, including office visits and steroid injections, according to an Aug. 25 Justice Department news release.
Dr. Orusa required Medicare beneficiaries and other patients to visit his clinic as many as six times per month and undergo unnecessary steroid injections in order to obtain their prescriptions. He also altered progress visit notes in his patients’ medical records to justify higher billing rates.
He must also pay $1 million in restitution, pay a $195,000 fine and must forfeit previously seized assets worth approximately $900,000, according to the release.