Michigan nurse convicted of $1.6M in Medicare fraud using stolen patient records

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A federal jury has found a 55-year-old Michigan nurse and home health agency owner guilty of committing Medicare fraud using patient records stolen from a Detroit hospital.

Ruby Scott, of Farmington, Mich., was convicted May 14 of five counts of healthcare fraud, conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and pay illegal healthcare kickbacks, and four counts of paying illegal healthcare kickbacks, according to a Justice Department news release.

Prosecutors had alleged Ms. Scott bribed a discharge nurse at an unnamed Detroit hospital from 2018-21 to provide her with the personal and diagnostic information of Medicare patients that, unbeknownst to them, Ms. Scott fraudulently billed for home health services they never received. The government said Ms. Scott paid the sdischarge nurse $130,000 and caused $1.6 million in Medicare losses.

Ms. Scott, who faces decades in prison, is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 24.

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