A 64-year-old Whitefish physician accused in defrauding government healthcare programs admitted Wednesday to falsely billing Medicare and other federal programs in a telemedicine scheme that resulted in more than $39 million in false billing, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Ronald David Dean pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud before U.S. District Judge Dana L. Christensen. He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison, a $1 million fine and three years of supervised release.
Dean’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for Dec. 4 and his plea agreement calls for him to pay at least $780,509 in restitution. His release was continued pending further proceedings.
According to court documents, Dean, who is a licensed physician, was paid by a telemedicine company to sign orders for durable medical equipment that patients did not need. He then fraudulently charged Medicare, CHAMPVA and the Railroad Retirement Board programs for telemedicine office visits that did not occur.
The telemedicine company also used Dean’s information to prescribe unneeded and unnecessary Covid tests to patients. The conspiracy ran from about January 2022 until July 2023.
In total, Dean’s orders resulted in false billing to government healthcare programs of more than $39 million.
The case is part of the Justice Department’s 2024 National Health Care Fraud Enforcement Action. The strategically coordinated, two-week nationwide law enforcement action resulted in criminal charges against 193 defendants for their alleged participation in healthcare fraud and opioid abuse schemes that resulted in the submission of more than $2.75 billion in alleged false billings.
The defendants allegedly defrauded programs designated for elderly patients and officials have seized more than $231 million in cash, luxury vehicles, gold and other assets in connection with the enforcement action.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Montana worked with the Department’s Criminal Division and the following law enforcement organizations to investigate and prosecute the case filed during the enforcement period: the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General (VA-OIG), Railroad Retirement Board Office of Inspector General and FBI.