TEXAS
A federal judge sentenced a Houston psychiatrist today to 12 years in prison for her role in a $158 million Medicare fraud scheme involving false claims for mental health treatment, according to officials.
Sharon Iglehart, 58, a former attending psychiatrist at Riverside General Hospital of Houston, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein Jr. Judge Werlein also ordered Iglehart to pay $6.3 million in restitution and to forfeit the same amount.
On Sept. 10, following a seven-day trial, a jury convicted Iglehart of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, one count of health care fraud and three counts of making false statements relating to health care matters.
This is what the evidence indicated:
From 2006 until June 2012, Iglehart and others were involved in a scheme to defraud Medicare by submitting through Riverside Hospital about $158 million in false. The false claims to Medicare for partial hospitalization program services, an intensive outpatient treatment for severe mental illness, according to officials.
The evidence presented at trial showed that the Medicare beneficiaries for whom Riverside billed Medicare did not receive the services. In fact, evidence proved that most of the Medicare beneficiaries rarely saw a psychiatrist and did not receive intensive psychiatric treatment at all, officials said.
In addition, evidence presented at trial showed that Iglehart personally billed Medicare for individual psychotherapy and other treatment purportedly provided to patients at Riverside locations – treatment that she never provided.
Further, Iglehart falsified the medical records of patients at Riverside’s inpatient facility to make it appear as if she provided psychiatric treatment when she did not, the evidence showed.
To date, 12 other individuals have been convicted based on their roles in this scheme that included the following people:
- Earnest Gibson III, 71, of Houston, the former president of Riverside
- Earnest Gibson IV, 38, of Pearland, Texas, the operator of one of Riverside’s PHP satellite locations
- Regina Askew, 50, of Houston, a group home owner and patient file auditor
- Robert Crane, 59, of Spring, Texas, a patient recruiter
They all convicted after a jury trial in October 2014.
Earnest Gibson III was sentenced to 45 years in prison
Earnest Gibson IV was sentenced to 20 years in prison
Askew was sentenced to 12 years in prison
Crane has not yet been sentenced.
Mohammad Khan, 66, of Houston, an assistant administrator at the hospital, who managed many of the hospital’s PHPs, plead guilty and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.