VA Beach Doc Gets Prison For Billing Fraud

Dr. Robert Poulin is finally facing the music for defrauding tax payers out of $1.3 million through billing fraud. Poulin, an oncologist from Virginia Beach, would charge the government programs for excess amounts of drugs and then split them between patients receiving full-price for half doses. The doctor would also bill the programs for more chemo drugs than were administered. He was sentenced to 63 months (just over 5 years) in jail for his crimes.

The crime that Dr. Poulin was found guilty of is very difficult to detect. In this day and age where all the blame of escalating costs go towards "defensive medicine" its tough to get a word in edgewise about fraud. I know that most doctors don't participate in this sort of thing but the case-at-hand just goes to show how easily doctors can defraud not just government programs but insurance companies. The FBI was tracking Dr. Poulin as he defrauded a government agency by charging for drugs he didn't use. Who knows if the same scrutiny is being applied to physicians who may be defrauding insurance agencies? Detecting over-billing for unadministered drugs is one thing, but what about detecting billing for unnecessary treatments under the guise of so-called "defensive medicine"? It's no secret that doctors get paid per-service. The more check-ups and tests you undergo the more they rake in. Sounds more like "offensive medicine" to me: run more tests, get more money. Who's going to catch you? It's not like you're billing for a test you didn't run.

Again, we know there is fraud out there, we see it in this case. Most doctors don't fudge their numbers or overtreat, just like most attorneys won't bring frivolous cases, but unfortunately there are some out there who do. I'm simply saying that the system we have now is ripe for the kind of thing Dr. Poulin was doing.

Fore more on this check out the news article by clicking on the title of this entry or check out my article "The High Cost of Defensive Medicine."