The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that podiatrist who practiced in Harrisburg and Elizabethtown was sentenced today to 16 months in federal prison for committing health care fraud.
United States Attorney Peter J. Smith said that Dr. Michael C. Karason, 44, who now resides in Lincoln, California, previously pleaded guilty to engaging in a scheme to defraud health care benefits programs. At today’s hearing Senior District Court Judge Sylvia H. Rambo also directed that Karason pay a total of $118,072.29 in restitution to Medicare, Capital Blue Cross and Highmark and that he serve a three-year term of supervised release following his prison sentence.
According to the charges and a summary of facts presented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy Fawcett, Karason maintained two offices in the Harrisburg area and an office in Elizabethtown as well as two offices in the Los Angeles, California, area. He engaged in a pattern of billing health insurers for services in both Pennsylvania and California that were supposedly provided in both locations at the same time. Investigators obtained travel and financial documents that established Karason was in California during time periods when he billed for services in his central Pennsylvania offices. Some of the services billed in this manner were not provided at all; others were provided by an unlicensed office manager not authorized to perform such services.
***********************************************************************
Report Medicare & Medicaid Fraud by Calling 1-888-482-6825 or by visiting
www.usawhistleblower.com
