Jul 7, 2008 9:46 pm US/Pacific
Doctor Gets 10 Years In 'Rent-A-Patient' Scam
LOS ANGELES (AP) ―
A Southern California doctor was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison Monday for billing health insurance companies more than $9 million in unnecessary surgical procedures, prosecutors said.
William Hampton, 53, of Cypress was also ordered to pay nearly $2.5 million in restitution to defrauded health insurance companies by U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins, who called his actions a "crime of greed."
Hampton was convicted last November of health care fraud. He performed more than 400 unnecessary procedures at several medical clinics and submitted fraudulent bills to insurance companies, said U.S. attorney's spokesman Thom Mrozek.
Surgery center marketers recruited the patients who were paid up to $1,200 for undergoing "sweaty palm surgery," a procedure that treats excessive hand perspiration, Mrozek said.
A jury acquitted Hampton on a separate fraud count and deadlocked on nine other charges, which prosecutors later dismissed.
Defense attorney Donald Etra said his client will appeal the sentence. He said prosecutors alleged a massive fraud but only proved that health insurance companies lost about $7,250.
"It's baffling that he can get sentenced on facts that the jury didn't find," Etra said. "The government did not prove its case."
Dr. Mamdouh Bahna, another surgeon involved in the scheme, pleaded guilty to health care fraud last year and was sentenced to nearly five years in prison.
(© 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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