Pleaded Guilty to Submitting False Claims : Physician Gets Year in Jail for Medi-Cal Fraud

An Anaheim physician charged in 1984 with multiple counts of submitting false Medi-Cal claims has pleaded guilty to a single felony count and has been sentenced to a year in jail and a $25,000 fine, the state attorney general’s office has announced.

Dr. Ha Thuc Nhu Hy, 48, pleaded guilty in Orange County Superior Court Jan. 30 and was sentenced by Judge Manuel A. Ramirez, according to Deputy Atty. Gen. Ron Casino.

Hy’s sentence included three years’ probation, but Ramirez ruled that if the fine is paid by March 27, he would consider modifying the sentence to six months in custody, which could include participation in a work-furlough program, Casino said.

Investigators in the attorney general’s Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud charged that Hy, a Long Beach resident, was paying people known as “drivers” to bring Medi-Cal cards from bona fide program recipients. The cards were then used to generate $25,000 in billings for services that never were provided.

Six weeks after Hy was charged, investigators recorded a conversation between the doctor and a prospective witness against him in which Hy allegedly tried for 90 minutes to persuade the witness to testify untruthfully, according to Deputy Atty. Gen. Ronald Prager. Hy was also charged with contacting other witnesses by letter, and with four counts of soliciting for perjury.

On Oct. 27, 1986, after seven days of trial, Hy agreed to plead guilty to submitting false claims, the attorney general’s office said.