Shreveport woman sentenced to 27 months in prison for health care fraud, wire fraud

SHREVEPORT, La. – United States Attorney Stephanie A. Finley announced that the owner and operator of a Shreveport intensive outpatient program company was sentenced Monday to 27 months in prison for charging Medicare for services never rendered.

Sharon Monroe, 43, of Shreveport, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge S. Maurice Hicks Jr. for one count of health care fraud and one count of wire fraud. She was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and was ordered to pay $992,479.08 restitution. According to evidence presented at the September 11, 2014 guilty plea, Monroe, owner of Monroe Medical Management LLC, submitted fraudulent claims to Medicare for Part B psychotherapy services from 2007 to 2011. As a result of the fraudulent claims, she improperly received payments from Medicare. Monroe filed claims for psychotherapy services that were never performed. She also used physicians’ Medicare provider numbers to submit claims without the physicians’ knowledge. In some cases, she claimed her employees rendered services in excess of 24 hours a day, that some of her employees were qualified to perform services when they were not, and that some of the services were performed at medical offices when they were not.

  The FBI and Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, conducted the investigation.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Earl M. Campbell prosecuted the case.