Missouri cardiologist pleads guilty to making false statements to receive higher reimbursement
Randall E. Meyer, a cardiologist from Jefferson City, Mo., pleaded guilty to making false statements to receive higher reimbursement on healthcare claims.
Meyer, 60, admitted that he claimed that 14 patients he treated in 2010 had 70 percent or greater lesions and stenosis in their arteries even though the percentage was much lower. He then submitted claims mentioning the higher percentages to increase his reimbursement.
Meyer’s false claims led to an increased reimbursement of between $95,000 and $150,000, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western district of Missouri.
“The health care benefit programs would not have allowed, reimbursed, or paid those claims if the programs had known Meyer was inflating the percentage of patient lesion and stenosis,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western district of Missouri said in a news release.
Meyer, a partner at Central Missouri Cardiology, P.C., must surrender his medical license two weeks before his sentencing hearing, which has not been scheduled. Under his plea agreement, he must also pay $76,369 in restitution.
The news release said that the federal government has not waived its right to charge Meyer through the False Claims Act with regards to the claims he submitted to federal payers.
Executive Editor
Tim Casey joined TriMed Media Group in 2015 as Executive Editor. For the previous four years, he worked as an editor and writer for HMP Communications, primarily focused on covering managed care issues and reporting from medical and health care conferences. He was also a staff reporter at the Sacramento Bee for more than four years covering professional, college and high school sports. He earned his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Notre Dame and his MBA degree from Georgetown University.