An Arizona podiatrist has been sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to pay $965,985 in restitution to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services after he admitted submitting false claims for care provided to assisted living residents, the Justice Department said Tuesday.
Loren Wessel was sentenced May 17 after having previously pleaded guilty to healthcare fraud.
From 2008 through June 2016, the Justice Department said, Wessel regularly provided routine foot care for assisted living residents in and near Tucson, AZ. He fraudulently billed Medicare for “more complex and significantly more expensive services” that he had not performed, however, the department said.
Wessel also falsely documented residents’ medical records to include information about the alleged ailments they in reality did not have and about the care that he actually did not provide, according to the DOJ.
