Podiatrist gets 5 months, $25,000 fine - Kansas City Business Journal:

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Dr. Bic Chau Stafford, who practicede at the in Maryland as well as assorted assisted livinb facilitiesin St. Louis City and St. Louis in April to one felony count of obstruction of afederal audit. 59, also executed a civil settlement agreement with the United States requiring her to pay the Medicardprogram $425,000. Stafford billedc Medicare for numerous complex foot surgery procedurese provided to 39 local Medicare beneficiariexs when she was really providing these patientsw with only routinefoot care, such as toe nail prosecutors said.
When she was audited by the Medicare prograjin 2007, Medicare denied her claimas for reimbursement regarding these 39 beneficiariess and requested that she repay $6,8400 for non-covered services that had been previously paid to her. Staffordx challenged this and as part of her efforts to avoid payintthe overpayment, Stafford created new treatment records for thosse 39 patients in 2007, back-dating them to 2004, usingg fraudulent treatment information and claiming that she had provided these patients with podiatric surgical procedure, prosecutors said.