{"id":47560,"date":"2021-09-20T15:37:08","date_gmt":"2021-09-20T22:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=47560"},"modified":"2021-09-20T15:37:44","modified_gmt":"2021-09-20T22:37:44","slug":"podiatrist-charged-with-health-care-fraud-for-alleged-foot-bath-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=47560","title":{"rendered":"Podiatrist Charged with Health Care Fraud for Alleged Foot Bath Scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A federal grand jury in Memphis, Tennessee last week indicted a podiatrist with a scheme to defraud Medicare and TennCare by prescribing and dispensing medically unnecessary foot bath medications, according to officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the indictment, Nathan Lucas, D.P.M., 56, of Memphis, owned and operated a podiatry clinic, Advanced Foot & Ankle Care of Memphis LLC, as well as multiple in-house pharmacies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"closeup<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The indictment alleges that Lucas regularly prescribed antibiotic and antifungal drugs to be mixed into a tub of warm water for patients to soak their feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These drug cocktails included capsules, creams, and powders that were not indicated to be dissolved in water and some of which were not water-soluble. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The indictment alleges that Lucas chose these medications to prescribe and dispense based on their anticipated reimbursement amount, rather than medical necessity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, in 2019, Lucas wrote a prescription to a patient for 1,080 capsules of vancomycin, 7,650 grams of econazole cream, and 180 grams of lidocaine, all to be dissolved in a foot bath, and caused Medicare to reimburse his pharmacy over $18,000 for dispensing these drugs, prosecutors allege.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From in or around October 2018 to the present, Lucas allegedly caused his pharmacies to submit nearly $4 million in claims to Medicare and TennCare for dispensing expensive foot bath medications that were not medically necessary and would not have been eligible for reimbursement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lucas is charged with five counts of health care fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison per count. Lucas is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A federal grand jury in Memphis, Tennessee last week indicted a podiatrist with a scheme to defraud Medicare and TennCare by prescribing and dispensing medically unnecessary foot bath medications, according to officials….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nPodiatrist Charged with Health Care Fraud for Alleged Foot Bath Scheme<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A federal grand jury in Memphis, Tennessee last week indicted a podiatrist with a scheme to defraud Medicare and TennCare by prescribing and dispensing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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