Southfield doctor to plead guilty in fraud cas

Southfield doctor to plead guilty in fraud case

Detroit— Gwendolyn Washington, a Southfield doctor convicted in a Detroit Public Schools corruption case, is expected to plead guilty this morning in a separate case alleging health care fraud and prescription drug dealing.

While the exact nature of the plea is unclear, federal prosecutors today filed a felony information charging her with health care fraud and soliciting/receiving payment in violation of the Health Care Anti-Kickback statute. Washington is scheduled to appear at noon in U.S. District Court.

She was charged in March with submitting claims to Medicare for procedures received by patients who were dead. She also was accused of writing phony prescriptions for powerful pain medications, which were sold illegally on the black market.

Washington, a Detroit resident who has a medical practice in Southfield, is awaiting sentencing Aug. 9 in the corruption case after pleading guilty to a conspiracy to commit fraud charge in March in U.S. District Court.

From January 2000 to November 2008, Medicare paid Washington and a company called Universal Imaging about $3.5 million for tests performed on her patients, according to prosecutors.

Washington ordered nuclear stress tests for patients every six months, which exposed them to increased risk of developing cancer, according to prosecutors.

In all, Washington submitted bills to Medicare for 10 patients who were dead at the time the services were performed, according to court records. That included 13 office visits, four home visits and eight claims for time spent supervising home care for those patients.

Investigators learned the patients were dead by checking the Social Security Death Index. In each case, the patients died before Washington said they received the services, according to the complaint.

In the DPS case, Washington pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a federal case in which she and others are accused of raiding more than $3 million from the cash-strapped Detroit school district.

Her sister, Detroit art gallery owner Sherry Washington, was convicted in the Detroit schools case last month and faces up to 20 years in prison.