Detroit Clinic Owner Sentenced to Over 13 Years in Prison for $8.9 Million Health Care Fraud Scheme

The owner of two Detroit-area clinics was sentenced to 160 months in prison today for her role in a scheme involving approximately $8.9 million in fraudulent Medicare claims for home health care and other physician services that were procured through the payment of kickbacks, were not medically necessary, were not actually provided, or were provided by an unlicensed physician.

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider of the Eastern District of Michigan, Special Agent in Charge Timothy Slater of the FBI’s Detroit Division and Special Agent in Charge Lamont Pugh III of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General’s (HHS-OIG) Chicago Regional Office made the announcement.

Jacklyn Price, 34, of Shelby, Michigan, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Robert Cleland of the Eastern District of Michigan.  Judge Cleland also ordered Price to pay $6,350,332 in restitution, jointly and severally with her co-conspirators, and to forfeit the same amount.  Price pleaded guilty in April 2017 to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and one count of health care fraud.

Price’s co-defendant, Millicent Traylor, M.D., 47, of Detroit, Michigan, was sentenced to serve 135 months in prison on Sept. 27; her co-defendant Muhammad Qazi, 48, of Oakland Township, Michigan, was sentenced to serve 42 months in prison on Aug. 27; and her other co-defendant, Christina Kimbrough, M.D., 39, of Canton, Michigan, was sentenced to serve 27 months in prison on Sept. 26.  Qazi and Kimbrough each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud.  Traylor was convicted in May 2018 of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, one count of conspiracy to pay and receive health care kickbacks, and five counts of health care fraud following a four-day trial.

The FBI and HHS-OIG investigated the case, which was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, under the supervision by the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and U.S. Attorney’s Office for Eastern District of Michigan.  Trial Attorneys Stephen Cincotta and Steve Scott of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section are prosecuting the case.

The Criminal Division’s Fraud Section leads the Medicare Fraud Strike Force.  Since its inception in March 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, which maintains 14 strike forces operating in 23 districts, has charged nearly 4,000 defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for more than $14 billion.