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Press Release

JASE Sentencing

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Middle District of Louisiana
New Orleans Doctor Sentenced For Involvement In Health Care Fraud Scheme

BATON ROUGE, LA – Acting United States Attorney Walt Green announced today that DR. ANTHONY STEPHEN JASE, 44, of New Orleans, Louisiana, was sentenced to 15 months in prison and ordered to pay $360,293 in restitution for his convictions on health care fraud.

On October 21, 2011, JASE pled guilty to two counts of health care fraud before Judge James J. Brady, for involvement in two nearly identical schemes to defraud Medicare. The first conviction arose from JASE’s association with a Baton Rouge-based company known as Lobdale Medical Services, which was owned by Beatrice and Young Anyanwu. As part of the scheme to defraud, Sandra Parkman Thompson and others procured the names and personal information of Medicare beneficiaries in and around the New Orleans area and delivered these names to JASE, who then signed false and fraudulent prescriptions for power wheelchairs and other durable medical equipment for which the Medicare beneficiaries had no medical need. Thompson subsequently delivered the fraudulent prescriptions to the Anyanwus, who submitted claims to Medicare through Lobdale Medical Services for the medically unnecessary equipment. The total billings to Medicare by Lobdale Medicare Services exceeded $1,000,000. The second conviction arose from JASE’s involvement with a New Orleans-based durable medical equipment company known as Psalms 23-DME, which also paid Thompson to deliver prescriptions for wheelchairs and other durable medical equipment. JASE wrote prescriptions for beneficiaries whom he had never seen and who had no need for the equipment that was prescribed them. As a result, Psalms 23-DME billed Medicare for claims totaling $230,963 using JASE’s provider number.

Beatrice and Young Anyanwu pled guilty to the health care fraud scheme to defraud Medicare as well as the illegal remuneration conspiracy on August 14, 2012, and were sentenced on February 1, 2013. Sandra Parkman Thompson was convicted after a jury trial on August 20, 2012, and was sentenced on March 14, 2013.

Acting U.S. Attorney Walt Green stated, “This case is a great example of how federal and state law enforcement work together on a daily basis to stamp out health care fraud by doctors and others who abuse our health care system in our state.”

FBI Special Agent in Charge Michael Anderson stated, "Addressing betrayals of the public's trust in the health care system by physicians continues to be the FBI's top priority in its ongoing fight against health care fraud."

The investigation of JASE was conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Louisiana Department of Justice. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Catherine M. Maraist and René I. Salomon of the Middle District of Louisiana and Patrice Sullivan of the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Updated December 15, 2014