A psychologist who practiced in the Lebanon area was sentenced in federal court yesterday for a $1 million scheme to defraud Medicare and Medicaid.
Rhett McCarty, 67, of Lake Ozark, has been sentenced to three years in federal prison without parole and to pay $1 million in restitution to Medicare and Medicaid, according to a news release from the office of Tammy Dickinson, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri.
McCarty, who was a licensed psychologist and private practitioner providing psychotherapy services to Medicare and Medicaid recipients in their Lebanon-area homes, pleaded guilty to health care fraud and forgery in
August.
McCarty admitted he was paid by Medicare and Medicaid for services he didn't actually provide, according to the release.
From Sept. 17, 2008-April 5, 2012, McCarty submitted Medicare and Medicaid claims indicating he provided daily or nearly daily services to 19 beneficiaries, for which he was paid $1.3 million. In the claims, McCarty said he routinely worked long hours, saw beneficiaries seven days a week and worked every day in the scheme's time frame, except for Christmas. Though he did provide some services to most of the beneficiaries, McCarty actually never saw them more than once a week, the release said.
He also forged, or cause another person to forge, the signatures of five beneficiaries on patient sign-in sheets to obtain $418,507 in payments.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lucinda Woolery and was investigated by the Office of Inspector General, the FBI and the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.[[In-content Ad]]
