Mississippi physician Scott Nelson, MD, has received a five-year sentence for healthcare fraud in the state's Delta region, according to a Feb. 9 report from the Greenwich Time.
Dr. Nelson was convicted by a jury for serving as the medical director for multiple fraudulent hospice operations. Evidence presented in the two-week trial in April showed he referred patients who were not terminally ill to hospice care, leading to more than $16 million in fraudulent Medicare payments.
In addition to his five-year sentence, Dr. Nelson was ordered by U. S. District Judge Debra Brown to pay $15 million in restitution.