A Houston ambulance operator was sentenced to 97 months in prison for her role in a $2.4 million Medicare fraud scheme.
Gwendolyn Climmons-Johnson, 54, was convicted by a federal jury in Houston, Texas, on October 30, 2013, of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and four counts of health care fraud.
The evidence presented at trial showed that Climmons-Johnson, who controlled the day-to-day operations of Urgent Response EMS, submitted approximately $2.4 million in fraudulent ambulance service claims to Medicare from January 2010 through December 2011.
The claims were for medically unnecessary and/or not provided ambulance services. Patient records had been falsified, and the Medicare beneficiaries for whom Climmons-Johnson had billed ambulance services did not need ambulance services and were not in the condition stated in the records.
Climmons-Johnson was also sentenced to serve three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $972,132 in restitution.
The case was investigated by the FBI, HHS-OIG, and Texas MFCU and was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, supervised by the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas.
The case was prosecuted by Trial Attorney Christopher Cestaro and Assistant Chief Laura M.K. Cordova of the Fraud Section.
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Key Facts
- State: Texas
- Category: White Collar Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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