Podiatrist gets 5 months, $25,000 fine - Business First of Buffalo:

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Dr. Bic Chau Stafford, who practiced at the in Maryland Heights, as well as assortedf assisted living facilitiesin St. Louis City and St. Louis County, in April to one felonyg count of obstruction of afederal audit. Stafford, 59, also executefd a civil settlement agreement with the Unites States requiring her to pay the Medicarwprogram $425,000. Stafford billed Medicare for numerousx complex foot surgery procedures providedf to 39 local Medicare beneficiaries when she was reallyg providing these patients with only routinerfoot care, such as toe nail prosecutors said.
When she was auditedr by the Medicare program in Medicare denied her claims for reimbursement regarding these 39 beneficiariea and requested that sherepay $6,840p for non-covered services that had been previously paid to her. Stafford challenged this and as part of her efforte to avoid payingthe overpayment, Stafford createdr new treatment records for those 39 patients in back-dating them to 2004, using fraudulent treatment information and claiming that she had provided these patients with podiatric surgical procedure, prosecutors said.