A St. Louis physician plead guilty in August 2024 to one count of conspiracy. He admitted that while operating St. Louis General Hospital locations in the city and Creve Coeur, Mo., he and his office manager hired assistant physicians (“APs”) to see patients but billed federal healthcare programs as if he had seen them. He billed the federal health care programs for services even when he was out of town. APs are medical school graduates who have not completed a residency program. To legally practice medicine in Missouri, APs are required to be closely supervised by a licensed physician under written collaborative practice arrangements (CPAs) that restrict the AP’s ability to provide medical services and limit their practice areas to medically underserved rural or urban areas. This is stupid basic fraud. On February 16, 2025 U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Clark sentenced a doctor who ran two urgent care centers in the St. Louis area to 35 months in prison for defrauding Medicare and Missouri Medicaid and ordered him to repay $742,528.
“This crime went beyond bilking taxpayer funded healthcare programs. Dr. Sonny Saggar risked the well-being of patients with urgent medical needs. He knew his assistant physicians were not qualified to see patients without supervision,” said Special Agent in Charge Ashley Johnson of the FBI St. Louis Division. “To add further insult to injury, Dr. Saggar falsely claimed he was the one who saw the patients so he could bill Medicare and Medicaid.” Cell phone, GPS tracking, and basic patient statements make rooting out, calculating, charging, prosecuting, and convicting individuals who commit crimes similar to this very easy.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-edmo/pr/st-louis-area-doctor-sentenced-health-care-fraud
