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Detroit Doctor Pleads Guilty to Health Care Fraud
A Detroit-area medical doctor who prescribed unnecessary controlled substances and billed for unperformed office visits and diagnostic testing pleaded guilty today for his role in a $5.7 million health care fraud scheme.
Laran Lerner, 59, of Northville, Michigan, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Victoria A. Roberts of the Eastern District of Michigan to one count of health care fraud and one count of structuring cash transactions to avoid bank reporting requirements, as charged in a two-count information filed on August 21, 2015.
According to admissions made as part of his plea agreement, Lerner lured patients into his clinic with prescriptions for unnecessary controlled substances. Lerner admitted that he billed and caused Medicare to be billed for a variety of unnecessary prescriptions, tests and office visits to make it appear as though he was providing legitimate medical services instead of medically unnecessary controlled substances.
According to admissions made as part of his plea agreement, Medicare was billed $5,748,237.31, as a result of Lerner’s unnecessary prescriptions, office visits and diagnostic testing.
Lerner also pleaded guilty to structuring cash deposits he received as a result of his scheme to avoid triggering the requirement under federal law that domestic banks file a report – called a Currency Transaction Report – with the Secretary of Treasury for all transactions in currency over $10,000.
The case was investigated by the FBI, HHS-OIG and IRS-CI, 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 of the Eastern District of Michigan. The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Elizabeth Young of the Fraud Section.
Lerner is set to be sentenced on January 24, 2016. Lerner agreed to permanently surrender his Drug Enforcement Administration controlled substance registration and agreed not to re-apply in the future.
Key Facts
- State: Michigan
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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