A 64-year-old Whitefish doctor who admitted defrauding government health programs and falsely billing Medicare and other federal programs in a telemedicine scheme that resulted in more than $31 million in false billing was sentenced today to six months in prison to be followed by six months of home confinement. He also must pay a fine of $100,000 and restitution in the amount of $780,509, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Ronald David Dean in July pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. U.S. Judge District Judge Donald W. Molloy presided.
The case was part of the Justice Department’s 2024 National Health Care Fraud Enforcement Action that resulted in 193 defendants charged and more than $2.75 billion in false claims.
“Ronald Dean put profit before patients,” Special Agent in Charge Shohini Sinha of the Salt Lake City FBI said in a prepared statement. “This case, along with the coordinated nationwide effort, reaffirms the FBI’s commitment to investigating fraud, protecting patients, and maintaining the integrity of government funded programs.”
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. As part of the scheme, Dean relied on information provided by people he did not know to prescribe braces for beneficiaries he did not see or evaluate himself. He also provided blanket authorization for the telemedicine company to send out unnecessary Covid tests, falsely billing Medicare, records state.
In total, Dean’s orders resulted in false billing to government healthcare programs of more than $31 million. The total amount paid from those programs was $13,785,724.
According to court documents, the Whitefish Bike Retreat is listed as one of Dean’s assets available for liquidation. The property located at 855 Beaver Lake Road is listed for sale at $2.5 million.
In a letter sent to Judge Molloy, Dean wrote that he “failed to fully research the company.”
“I wanted to be home with my family and work from home and not travel and it was good pay, and because of that, I turned a blind eye to the fact that what I was doing was wrong,” he wrote.