FREDERICKSBURG, TX - A Texas doctor was sentenced today to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay $26,622,522.82 in restitution for his role in a scheme to defraud Medicare by prescribing durable medical equipment and cancer genetic testing without seeing, speaking to, or otherwise treating patients.
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, David M. Young M.D., 61, of Fredericksburg, signed thousands of medical records and prescriptions for orthotic braces and genetic tests that falsely represented that the braces and tests were medically necessary and that he diagnosed the beneficiaries, had a plan of care for them, and recommended that they receive certain additional treatment.
Young prescribed braces and genetic tests for over 13,000 Medicare beneficiaries, including undercover agents posing as different Medicare beneficiaries, many of whom he did not see, speak to, or otherwise treat. Young’s false prescriptions were then used by brace supply companies and laboratories to bill Medicare more than $70 million. Young was paid approximately $475,000 in exchange for signing the fraudulent prescriptions.
In May 2024, a jury convicted Young of one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and three counts of false statements relating to healthcare matters.
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brent S. Wible, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Special Agent in Charge Jason E. Meadows of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) Dallas Regional Office; and Chief William Marlowe of the Texas Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) made the announcement.
HHS-OIG and MFCU investigated the case.
Assistant Chief Brynn Schiess and Trial Attorney Ethan Womble of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section prosecuted the case.
The Fraud Section leads the Criminal Division’s efforts to combat healthcare fraud through the Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program. Since March 2007, this program, currently comprised of nine strike forces operating in 27 federal districts, has charged more than 5,400 defendants who collectively have billed federal healthcare programs and private insurers more than $27 billion.
In addition, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with HHS-OIG, are taking steps to hold providers accountable for their involvement in healthcare fraud schemes.
More information can be found at www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/health-care-fraud-unit.
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