Dive Brief:
- Tonya Rushing, former CEO of the now-defunct Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada, has been ordered to pay $8 million for her role in an alleged fraud scheme, according to U.S. Attorney Daniel G. Bogden of the District of Nevada.
- Rushing and former owner Dipak Desai have been accused of overcharging Medicare, Medicaid and private health insurance companies by overstating the time nurse anesthetists spent with patients.
- According to the plea agreement, Rushing and Desai created a separate company to handle the billing for the anesthesia services and received approximately 9% of all the money collected at the endoscopy center.
Dive Insight:
Healthcare fraud continues to undermine the industry, with the federal government recovering $3.3 billion in healthcare fraud funds in fiscal 2014, according to the Justice Department. Rushing pocketed almost $1.3 million as her share of this particular scheme, according to Healthcare Finance. Court records indicate that she and Desai imposed intense pressure on endoscopy center employees to schedule and treat as many patients as possible in a day, as well as instructing nurse anesthetists to overstate the time they spent on anesthesia procedures according to court records.
Rushing pleaded guilty to the charges last July and was sentenced to a year and one day in prison, two years of supervised release, and 150 hours of community service, as well as several fines. Desai pleaded guilty on April 2 to one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and one count of healthcare fraud and is scheduled to be sentenced on July 9.