The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has affirmed the sentence of Wesley Alford Boyd, Jr., in a criminal case that arose out of Medicare and Medicaid fraud at six Houston-area physical therapy clinics. This criminal prosecution began in 2002 with a 70-count indictment (case number 4:02-cr-00120 and several related cases) in which the government charged Mr. Boyd and eight other defendants with conspiracy, healthcare fraud, money laundering, and paying kickbacks for patient referrals.
Through the clinics, which included Quality Medi-Care Health Care Clinic, Inc., and Phycare Healthcare Systems, defendants hired individuals to recruit Medicare and Medicaid patients, intentionally misdiagnosed patients, and billed for services that were never performed. The indictment alleges that defendants’ scheme went on from 1996 to 2000 and resulted in the billing of millions of dollars to Medicare and Medicaid.
To give you some idea of the scope and cost of the scheme, U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore ordered one defendant, Mark Anthony Broussard, to pay $5,737,181 in restitution. The long history of the cases reveals that some small measure of justice was achieved.
In 2003, a jury in Houston’s U.S. District Court found Mr. Boyd and Dr. Clemis Laraine Jackson guilty on certain charges. The two appealed to the Fifth Circuit, which affirmed Dr. Jackson’s conspiracy conviction and his sentence but reversed Mr. Boyd’s conviction for healthcare fraud and sent his case back to the District Court for resentencing.
In his second appeal, Mr. Boyd challenged the calculation of his 78-month sentence under the federal sentencing guidelines, but the Fifth Circuit was not convinced. Mr. Boyd’s projected release date is January 25, 2011.
Following the unsuccessful appeal of his conspiracy conviction, Dr. Jackson failed in his attempt to vacate the sentence. Dr. Jackson gave up his medical license on December 10, 2004, and completed his prison sentence this year.
The jury found Dr. Ronald Haley not guilty of the charges against him. Mark Broussard, Rubylene Jackson Jones, Jonathan Elliot Jackson, Patrick Dale Mouton, Henry Lewis Reece, Jr., and Jerry Gerard Broussard all pled guilty to one or more counts of the indictment.
Mark Broussard subsequently claimed that he did not voluntarily agree to the plea agreement, but U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes denied his motion to vacate, set aside, or correct his 90-month prison sentence. Jonathan Elliot Jackson remains in prison following the dismissal of his appeal and an unsuccessful attempt to attack his plea of guilty. Mr. Reece received a 60-month sentence, and Jerry Broussard also served time. Rubylene Jackson Jones successfully completed her sentence of probation. Patrick Dale Mouton sought to modify and terminate his probation, but U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore denied the motion.
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