Roger D. Beyer, MD, Healthcare Fraud & Adulteration of Medical Devices, Michigan 2024

Michigan Doctor Sentenced to 57 Months in Prison for Healthcare Fraud and Adulteration of Medical Devices

GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN — U.S. Attorney Andrew B. Birge announced today that U.S. District Judge Janet T. Neff sentenced Roger D. Beyer, M.D., to 57 months of incarceration for his involvement in a conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and 12 months of incarceration to run concurrently for the adulteration of medical devices.

Dr. Beyer, who owned and operated the now-shuttered Urological Solutions of Michigan (“USM”), a mobile medical practice providing urological services to patients in their homes and assisted living facilities in the greater Traverse City, Grand Rapids, and Kalamazoo areas, and Women’s Health Care Specialists (WHCS), a gynecology practice located in Kalamazoo, was ordered to pay $5,000 in fines in conjunction with the charges as well as three years of supervised release to follow imprisonment for the healthcare fraud conspiracy charge and one year of supervised release for the adulteration charge.

The schemes committed by USM and WHCS, including billing pelvic muscle rehabilitation (“PMR”) therapy using improper—and more lucrative—diagnostic codes, billing for evaluation and management (“E&M”) services that did not occur, and billing for the services of an unlicensed nurse assistant, resulted in approximately $883,000 in false claims submitted by the practices and paid by Medicare.

Dr. Beyer was also sentenced for the adulteration of medical devices at USM and WHCS, where investigators discovered that USM and WHCS reused a single-user rectal pressure sensor on multiple patients as part of the PMR therapy, covering the device with the finger of a surgical glove, and WHCS staff reused a single-use anorectal manometry catheter on multiple patients as part of an initial diagnostic study with patients with potential fecal incontinence, covering the device with a condom.

The reuse of these medical devices was in contravention with the devices’ instructions for use and inconsistent with the device clearances by the Food & Drug Administration (“FDA”). The Federal Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act prohibits the adulteration of medical devices, which includes holding devices under “insanitary conditions” whereby they may have been contaminated with filth or rendered injurious to health.

Dr. Beyer’s sentence follows the June 2020 sentencing of Mark Sabor, USM’s practice manager who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and was sentenced to two years in prison.

Dr. Beyer’s offense was a “significant fraud on a very valuable federal program,” according to Judge Neff, who observed that the size of the Medicare program “make it a great target for fraud … [but] cheating the government is really cheating all of us and particularly those who need the assistance of the arm of government.”

In issuing Dr. Beyer’s sentence, Judge Neff noted that Dr. Beyer pleaded guilty “there was a gross minimization of culpability.” Judge Neff concluded that a significant term of imprisonment was necessary to promote “punishment and respect for the law” and that a sentence of less than incarceration would not sufficiently deter others from similar conduct.

Dr. Beyer will serve 57 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for healthcare fraud and 12 months in prison followed by one year of supervised release for adulteration of medical devices. He has also agreed to pay a share of a civil settlement totaling $1.26 million to resolve false claims act allegations.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdmi/pr/2020_1029_Beyer_Wright