More Medicare fraud allegations; Houston hospital chief latest nabbed in crackdown

Further establishing that there are no unaccountable federal programs only bad people, authorities have charged a Houston clinic administrator with $116 million in Medicare fraud.

Mohammed Khan’s alleged con was to pay elderly and disabled care operators to recruit residents for the mental health clinics he oversaw through Riverside General Hospital, a story today by the Houston Chronicle says.

With an added entrepreneurial flourish, Khan lured recruits into therapy giving away coupons for merchandise at several “country stores” at Riverside Hospital and handing out cigarettes and food, the indictment says.  

Khan and several unnamed co-conspirators submitted $116 million in claims to Medicare for treatment that wasn’t medically necessary and sometimes not provided at all, the indictment says.

For this federal authorities charged Khan with seven counts of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and health care kickback conspiracy.

Khan’s arrest is the latest in a federal crackdown on Medicare and Medicaid fraud called for nearly two years ago by President Obama.

Restrictions on Medicare claims data were eased as a tool for pursuing fraud late last year after an investigation by the Wall Street Journal led to arrests in Dallas and Houston almost a year ago in the broadest Medicare fraud roundup in U.S. history.

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Contact Mark Lisheron at 512-299-2318 or mark@texaswatchdog.org or on Twitter at @marktxwatchdog.

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