Doctor Guilty in Elaborate Medicare Fraud Scheme
A Brentwood physician who operated a medical clinic in South-Central Los Angeles has been convicted of defrauding Medicare out of millions of dollars by falsely diagnosing patients recruited for free medical exams.
Keith O’Neil Perry, 45, was found guilty on 39 criminal charges after a two-week trial that ended Tuesday in Los Angeles federal court.
Perry, who owned and operated KP Medical Center, faces a probable three- to four-year prison term when he is sentenced on May 8 by Chief U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr.
According to evidence presented at the trial, Perry deliberately misdiagnosed about 300 Medicare and Medi-Cal patients as suffering from lymphedema, a rare vascular disease that requires patients to obtain highly expensive pumps, braces and other medical devices.
Prosecution witnesses testified that salespeople working for a medical equipment supply house recruited hundreds of Medicare beneficiaries from Filipino communities, telling them they would receive free medical exams.
Assistant U.S. Atty. Paul Rochmes, who prosecuted the case, said the salespeople filled out prescriptions and certificates of medical necessity for lymphedema pumps, back braces and other equipment.
Perry signed the prescriptions and certificates without examining the patients or consulting with the examining doctors, the prosecutor said.
Medicare paid one medical equipment supplier, which is no longer in business, $1.5 million while Perry received $70,000.
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