A former New Hampshire psychiatrist has been sentenced to 12 months and a day in federal prison for signing hundreds of medically unnecessary orders for braces without ever examining patients, according to an Oct. 13 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Hampshire.
Steven Powell, MD, 56, who now lives in Georgia, was also ordered to pay $761,202.75 in restitution to Medicare after pleading guilty to one count of health care fraud. Between December 2018 and March 2019, Dr. Powell signed pre-populated orders for knee, wrist, back and shoulder braces for more than 500 Medicare beneficiaries, often approving several braces per patient, without examining or speaking with them. In one instance, he completed more than 100 pages requiring 75 signatures in just over a minute.
The orders let DME suppliers submit about 1,400 false claims totaling more than $1.9 million, of which Medicare paid $761,203.
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