A Fredericksburg, Texas, doctor has been convicted in federal court in Dallas for his role in a nationwide, $39 million scam to bill Medicare for unnecessary orthotic devices and genetic tests for thousands of patients he never met.
Dr. David M. Young, an emergency room physician at Methodist Hospital Hill Country, was found guilty Friday by a jury in the court of U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr of all counts against him in a June 2023 indictment: one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and three counts of making false statements relating to healthcare matters.
Young’s sentencing before Judge Starr is scheduled for 9 a.m. on Oct. 2.
In closing arguments Friday, Brynn Schiess of the U.S. Department of Justice’s fraud section in Dallas said Young made $475,000 in about two years “for pretend medical care.” Prosecutors contended that Young, in cahoots with now-defunct telemedicine companies, many of them based in Florida, filed bogus prescriptions en masse for patients he never met, never examined and knew nothing about. In some cases, according to trial testimony, as many as a half-dozen orthotics, such as knee, ankle, wrist and shoulder braces, were ordered for a single patient.
“His concern was not patient care. All he cared about was signing prescriptions and making money,” Schiess’ fellow prosecutor Ethan Womble said in his closing argument. Womble added, “A doctor can’t treat a patient if he has no idea who that patient is.”
Young’s indictment said Medicare was billed about $39.6 million for “false and fraudulent claims” by the companies with which he contracted. Of that amount, the indictment said Medicare paid about $13.9 million.
Young’s defense lawyers contended that he was duped by ne’er-do-wells at the Florida companies into believing the patient charts he reviewed before ordering braces and genetic tests had been prepared by nurses and other medical professionals who had examined the patients. Instead, one government witness said, the so-called charts were mostly fabricated by low-wage employees with no medical training of any kind.
“People lied to him, manipulated him and used him,” defense lawyer Stephen Chahn Lee of Chicago said in his closing argument.
Young’s other counsel were S. Michael McColloch and Karen Cook of Dallas, and Michael E. Clark of the Houston office of Womble Bond Dickinson.
The case number in the Northern District of Texas is 3:21-cr-00417