John Eastham Clark, Medicare Fraud, Louisiana 2019

John Eastham Clark, 66, a Baton Rouge-based doctor, has been sentenced to 37 months in prison followed by two years of supervised release for his role in a scheme to defraud Medicare and other health care insurers.

Clark, a co-owner and the medical director of Louisiana Spine & Sports LLC, a pain management clinic located in Baton Rouge, was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Judge Shelly D. Dick of the Middle District of Louisiana.

As part of his guilty plea, Clark admitted that from approximately June 2005 through March 2015, he, along with his billing supervisor Charlene Anita Severio and others, conspired to submit fraudulent claims to Medicare and other health care insurers.

The scheme involved unbundling, a practice where minor surgical procedures were indicated to have occurred on days subsequent to office visits, when in fact the office visits and procedures took place on the same day.

Clark also admitted to falsifying, and directing Severio and others to falsify, records substantiating the fraudulent claims.

Severio, who pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud and two counts of health care fraud, is scheduled to be sentenced on May 22 by Chief Judge Dick.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General and the FBI, 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 Middle District of Louisiana.

Clark was ordered to pay $254,962.80 in restitution as part of his sentence.

The Medicare Fraud Strike Force is part of a joint initiative between the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to focus their efforts to prevent and deter fraud and enforce current anti-fraud laws around the country.

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