The Virginian-Pilot
©
NORFOLK
A cancer doctor who practiced for 35 years was sentenced Monday to more than five years in federal prison for bilking government-run health insurance programs out of $1.3 million.
Dr. Ronald Poulin, of Virginia Beach, apologized to his family and his patients, but still refused to take responsibility for the crimes for which a jury convicted him in the fall, appearing to lay the blame on his employees.
"I have to take responsibility for the actions of my employees," Poulin told the judge Monday. "I wasn't wasteful."
U.S. District Judge Mark S. Davis noted Poulin's lack of acceptance and called his criminal actions "disconcerting" and his attitude "cavalier."
Still, the 63-month prison term is at the low end of federally recommended sentencing guidelines. Poulin, 61, could have gotten up to 20 years.
Prosecutors asked for a sentence between 63 to 78 months. Poulin's attorneys asked the judge to consider probation or minimal prison time as the penalty, based in part on Poulin's lengthy medical career. His attorney said Poulin has treated some 12,000 patients.
Health care fraud prosecutions of doctors are relatively rare, with only two or three cases here in the past 10 years. The judge noted that the crime is difficult to detect, yet the FBI says health care fraud costs taxpayers more than $1 billion a year.
"This isn't a victimless crime," Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine Lee Martin told the judge. "It cheats taxpayers who must ultimately bear the burden. It diverts from those most in need."
A jury in the fall 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.
Prosecutors presented evidence showing that Poulin directed employees to alter, forge and destroy his records after being issued subpoenas by the inspector general offices of the Department of Defense and the Department of Health and Human Services.
The jury found that Poulin bilked Medicare and Tricare by splitting drugs between two patients and charging them each for a full dose, billing for patient visits when he wasn't in the office and billing for greater amounts of chemotherapy drugs than administered.
FBI analyst Angela Zoubul testified Monday that Poulin received $790,000 in excess of what he was entitled to get by filing $1.3 million in fraudulent claims between 2006 and 2008.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Alan M. Salsbury successfully argued for sentence enhancements for Poulin for abusing a position of trust and directing others, namely his employees, to assist him in trying to cover up the crime. Insurance companies, Salsbury told the judge, "trust the health care provider to be honest."
Poulin's attorney, Richard Klugh of Miami, noted that no patients were harmed by Poulin's actions. Several wrote letters of support for him, which were filed in the court.
Klugh also argued that the amount of the loss should be offset by insurance payments Poulin never received. An internal audit Poulin's staff conducted revealed hundreds of thousands of dollars lost through billing errors, Klugh said.
The judge refused and ordered Poulin to repay $790,000.
The government has already received a forfeiture order from the court, directing that Poulin turn over the total amount of the fraud - $1.3 million. The government has already seized Poulin's Mercedes-Benz, Audi, BMW, Land Rover and his million-dollar waterfront home on Oak Hill Court in Virginia Beach.
"The defendant has basically been reduced to nothing," Klugh said. "He's completely destitute."
Poulin, who has been free on $500,000 bond, asked the judge to let him surrender to federal custody at a later date. The judge denied the request, and the marshals took Poulin away in handcuffs.
The state Board of Medicine lists Poulin's license as active, but a board spokeswoman said generally that a felony conviction leads to automatic suspension after sentencing. Poulin has closed his practice, Virginia Hematology Oncology, off Newtown Road.
Tim McGlone, (757) 446-2343, tim.mcglone@pilotonline.com
- Submit a letter to the editor to The Virginian-Pilot by e-mail at letters@pilotonline.com. Include your full name, street address and daytime telephone number; selected letters are posted to the letters blog.
- Submit feedback to PilotOnline.com producers about comments.
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
Twitter
Google
Yahoo
How about his legal fee? He had more than three laywers ...
I am so glad that Judge Davis ordered Dr. Poulin to pay back almost a million dollars. His Miami lawyer pleaded that he did not have any money left to pay. Poor thing !!!!!. How did he pay for his legal fees? I bet it was paid before the trial started. He got at least 3 lawyers, one of them is (or was?) David Barger of Williams Mullen Northern VA office, whose hourly fee is more than $400, plus costs. There must be a large sum of legal fees to haul David Barger from NOVA to Norfolk for the trial, not counting costs for hotels, meals, car rentals .... On the day of sentencing, there was only one lawyer mentioned, and he is from Miami. It is proven that there is Justice after all, and money can't buy his way to freedom. Thank you God, thank you Jurors and thank you Judge.
About Time!!
If he had gotten 20 years, THAT would have sent a message--and one that needs to be sent. There are literally thousands of doctors bilking Medicare and Medicaid and they face almost no risk of being caught and they are stealing BILLIONS every year from taxpayers. Just because someone has an MD after their name doesn't mean s/he cant a thief!
Poulin Could Have Avoided Prison
Initially the Government was only looking for restitution of the money obtained by fraud. Dr. Poulin actually had an opportunity to avoid prison time. At the sentending, Judge Davis said that had Dr. Poulin complied with the subpoena when it was issued and supplied his unaltered medical and billing records as directed, the Government would have only sought restitution of the money. However, he chose to begin altering the records to try to conceal what he had done. He altered some of them in his own handwriting, and some were altered by a staff member at his direction, as the staff member testified in court. Another staff member tipped off the FBI that medical records were being altered and destroyed. That is when the FBI raided his office and it became a criminal matter. This is all in the official court record. He also harmed himself when he refused to cooperate with the probation officer who prepared the presentence report. He refused to provide various documents the officer requested. Judge Davis took this into consideration in imposing the sentence. Mitigating factors included his lack of a criminal record and his otherwise good reputation in the community. The prob
Unbalanced scales of justice
Explain to me how certain sectors of society can bilk this much money, pay it back, and avoid doing time. Does being a doctor invoke certain priveleges I was unaware of?
Years of Credibility Building
I am not saying it's right or just. You asked "how". It all begins when a student brings home good report cards. Then they place into honors biology or chemistry. Then they get top SAT scores and get into a good college and premed program. Add in some community service to bolster the application to med school; perhaps while in college this brilliant (or pretty smart) student does a special research project and gets the backing of a significant faculty member.... which also helps the medical school application. Now this student with a fabulous academic background and professors to back him up is "our son in medical school" and the halo effect takes hold and so on. Hard to say when and how the real character goes over the line and starts to justify cheating ...maybe there was some academic cheating in the past but never caught....
continued
The probation officer recommended 63-78 months, so Judge Davis showed compassion in imposing the lesser sentence. The charge of altering medical records carried a possible sentence of 20 years, so the sentence could have been much, much longer. Additionally, the court could have imposed a hefty fine on top of the restitution but did not.
There was one individual, a
There was one individual, a receptionist I believe, who according to the testimony in Court was granted immunity from prosecution. I know her name, but I don't want to divulge it online. Other than that, I cannot say whether any other staff members received immunity. Testimony at trial did reveal that immunity was offered to another staff member, but she refused to testify so it was withdrawn.
Health care Overhaul
We need Health care insurance overhaul now & this type of action needs to be part of it.
Congressional overhaul
If you want to find real crooks and slight-of-hand you need only look at our Congress. There is more theft in DC than the rest of the country. A little over a million is NOTHING compared to the TRILLIONS of dollars stolen from taxpayers at the hands of Dems and Repubs every day.
I don't condone theft at any level but also consider how many patients lives were prolonged or improved by this doctor's (and many others) efforts. The red tape wrapped around government regulations is daunting. Like the tax codes, I seriously doubt there is even one person that has a grasp on it. He is ruined financially and unable to practice anymore. A death sentence couldn't be any worse. I have no remorse for him personally but any member of his staff could have stopped this years ago (assuming this went on for such a length of time). They are just as guilty by association by not circumventing it.
I doubt the doctor did any
I doubt the doctor did any of his own billing, but the errors were done in his name at a time when the government is trying to send a message. Hopefully this will prompt other doctors will take a close look at what their staff is up to.