The Virginian-Pilot
©
NORFOLK
A federal court jury Tuesday found Dr. Ronald Poulin guilty of 28 counts of health care fraud, ruling that he bilked Medicare and Tricare out of $1.2 million.
The jury deliberated about three hours over Monday and Tuesday morning before finding Poulin, a Virginia Beach hematology and oncology specialist, guilty of each count presented. Poulin will remain free on bond pending sentencing March 15. He declined to comment after the verdict.
His attorneys said they will weigh their options.
"While we're very disappointed at the verdict, we
respect the process," said David Barger, one of Poulin's attorneys and a former federal prosecutor.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Alan M. Salsbury said afterward that the jury got it right. "We believe that the jury's verdict was properly supported by the evidence," Salsbury said as he left court with his co-prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine Lee Martin.
The prosecutors documented hundreds of occasions where Poulin billed for greater quantities of chemotherapy drugs than were actually administered to patients, charging for patient office visits that never occurred, and splitting vials of the anemia drug Procrit between two patients and then billing the insurance as if each patient had received a full vial. He also billed for vials of Procrit when patients brought in their own medicine.
"In addition, the evidence showed that he altered records to obstruct and influence a federal investigation," Salsbury said. When federal agents came to investigate, Poulin directed staff to alter records to hide the illegal activity, the evidence showed.
The jury convicted Poulin of one count of health care fraud, 26 counts of filing false health care statements and one count of altering records to obstruct the investigation.
He faces up to 20 years in prison on the most serious charge of altering records, up to 10 years on the health care fraud count and up to five years on each of the false statement counts.
Barger told the jury during his closing argument Monday that the panel's decision will essentially mean life or death for Poulin, 61.
Poulin did not testify, but his attorneys presented evidence that disgruntled and incompetent office staff led to hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses, not ill-gotten profits as the government had charged.
U.S. District Judge Mark S. Davis told the lawyers afterward that the case was a stressful one. "I think all of you did a tough job of zealously representing your clients," the judge said.
Poulin remains licensed by the Virginia Board of Medicine. But his license could be suspended upon sentencing for any felony conviction, according to state law.
Tim McGlone, (757) 446-2343, tim.mcglone@pilotonline.com
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Keep Your Eye on the Real Criminals: Hillary, Obama and Sebelius
Folks, don’t worry about the Dr Poulins of America. If there was a true medical marketplace, unaffected by Medicare and Medicaid, these things would not happen. The real criminals are inside the beltway. And they rely on their phony Federal courts and provincial news writers like Tim McGlone and Elizabeth Simpson to help them control the little people. The phony war on drugs. And the horribly corrupt Medicare and Medicaid programs which these morons (Sebelius, Hillary and Obama) just expanded exponentially! To see who the real criminals are search: Bush+Clinton+CIA+cocaine. And go to www.sebeliuscoverups.com
Obama and Sebelius Make More Work for their Fellow Trial Lawers
President Obama to a joint session of Congress September 10, 2009: (To our seniors)… “don’t pay attention to those scary stories…. these same folks….just this year, supported a budget that would have essentially turned Medicare into a privatized voucher program. That will never happen on my watch.”
Obama to a joint session of Congress September 10, 2009: (To our seniors)… “don’t pay attention to those scary stories…. these same folks….just this year, supported a budget that would have essentially turned Medicare into a privatized voucher program. That will never happen on my watch.”
Obama, Hillary and Sebelius are the Real Criminals
This simple statement belies the Obama/Democrat pay to play scam. These people couldn’t care less about the 20 million “uninsured” Americans (who currently are getting their health care for free). Instead, they just want to create another giant bureaucracy from which they and their lawyer pals can skim.
To simplify the 1500 page health care bill. And to reduce health care costs, simply provide current Medicare and Medicaid recipients with vouchers and let them buy, with these vouchers, whatever health insurance seems to fit their needs. And end all Blue Cross/Blue Shield tax-exempt status.
And issue a federal mandate that allows patients to cross state lines to buy whatever health insurance they wish. In other words, break up those cozy, lawyer dominated BC/BS (in state) monopolies which drive costs so high. Like the scam that Kathleen Sebelius ran, with her attorney pals in Kansas, for so many years.
The Real Criminals are Inside the Beltway
Wake up America! Simpler is better. Just remove the lawyers and the bureaucrats. And open the bidding. And bingo, the health care costs for patients and taxpayers, alike, will plummet. And our economy will recover. But do it the Democrats’ way and our national economic downhill spiral will tragically accelerate.
George Meredith MD
Virginia Beach
Its dr's like him
...that tarnish the system and jack up costs. Lock this guy up for a long time. We don't need his kind of physician.(crook)
As if getting sick wasn't complicated enough
This is reassuring. Come down with serious life threatening illness/ lucky enough to have insurance-/go to doctor to save your life and then he screws you over all in the name of profit and money. You just can't win.
I hope they lock this jerk up for a long time. I hope this sends a message to other doctors that have the greed factor in their DNA. This just can't get any worse.
And of course he blames it on his disgruntled staff!
What you should be worrying about
Is that you will someday go to your doctors office and find it padlocked because he has been bankrupted by the Medicare system.
A large part of your medical bills, if you are privately ensured, is really expense that Medicare did not pay on some elderly patient, which has been shifted to you. Medicare already does not pay what it costs to treat patients, and can only continue so long as doctors and hospitals can shift those costs to younger patients. If Medicare cuts reimbursement even more, as it is scheduled to do, many doctors will face a choice between dropping Medicare or going out of business altogether.
For oncologists like Poulin, most of their patients are on Medicare, so he didn't even have that choice. I find this glee over the likelihood that after caring for desperately ill patients for 30 years, he will spend the rest of his life in prison because he tried to cheat a system which has cheated him for decades to stay afloat, to be just a tad ugly.
Dr. Tabor, Are you kidding
Dr. Tabor,
Are you kidding me? First, this M.D. defrauds Medicare and Tricare (the US Military's healthcare), then he injects his patients with Procrit - a drug for anemia in chemo patients ONLY if they have severe kidney disease (none of them did) - he did it for the $2,000/shot. Procrit can kill them --- heart attack, stroke, etc. He then hears of the FBI investigation, orders his staff to change medical records (felonies), then blames the staff. You feel badly that he's convicted? Seriously??? and what about all the money he stole???? I'm wondering if he gave his patients the correct dosages of chemo, or 'watered it down' and billed for full doses and killed them??????? I wouldn't put it past him. You feel sorry for him?
I repeat - are you kidding me?????
MD's and profit
Where in the Hippocratic Oath does it say anything about remaining profitable, or becoming wealthy? I am so sick of physicians turning their chosen profession of healing the ill into an all out pull for the dollar signs. When no more physicians are riding around in Jags and BMW's, living in million-dollar homes, and taking vacations to tropical destinations, I'll listen to their boohooing about how little money they make. I work in healthcare, so I know that these MD's are not hurting for cash. This man broke the law. What is worse, he tried to blame his poor judgement on people he probably paid close to the minimum wage. Every year MD's complain about reimbursement rates, but their quality of life never suffers. The ones that suffer are their office staffs and nurses.
The begining.
This is what needs to be looked at and changed along with many other things in the medical industry but the catastrophe this new bill will cause is not the answer. While visiting my doctor this week I asked about the new bill and medicaid for seniors. My doctor was worried what their elderly patients would do after the medicaid drop and basically said if the bill passes they have already discussed (The Partners) the possibility of closing. The economy presently is very bad for many but becoming a forced welfare state will only make it worse for more.