Texas psychologist indicted in $158 million fraud scheme

December 20, 2013

HOUSTON, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- A federal grand jury has indicted a Houston doctor, alleging she took part in a $158 million Medicare fraud scheme, prosecutors announced Tuesday.

The indictment charges Sharon Iglehart, 56, with one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and four counts of healthcare fraud, the U.S. Justice Department said in a release.

Iglehart, who was arrested Monday, could be sent to prison for up to 10 years on each count if convicted, prosecutors said.

Iglehart is accused of taking part in a scheme to defraud Medicare from 2005 to May 2012. Under the alleged scheme, fraudulent claims were submitted to Medicare for partial hospitalization program services through a Houston hospital for treatment that wasn't needed or never provided.

The services are for intensive outpatient treatment for severe mental illness.

Earnest Gibson III, the hospital's administrator, and Mohammad Khan, an assistant administrator, also were indicted in the Medicare Fraud Strike Force investigation last year, along with William Bullock III, Robert Ferguson, Regina Askew, Leslie Clark and Robert Crane, the Justice Department said.

Khan and Clark have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.

The fraud strike force, started in March 2007, has charged more than 1,700 individuals who had collectively billed the Medicare program for more than $5.5 billion, the Justice Department said.

Source: "Texas doctor indicted in $158 million Medicare fraud scheme,"UPI, December 17, 2013.