Man Admits Billing Medicaid After Obtaining New York Medical License And Provider Enrollment In Medicaid Program Under False Pretenses
Schneiderman: We Will Protect Taxpayer Funded Programs From Fraudsters
BELMONT – Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today announced that his office has secured a felony guilty plea and $300,000 settlement from Fitzgerald A. Hudson, who billed Medicaid for physician’s services after obtaining enrollment as a Medicaid provider under false pretenses. Hudson, whose fraudulently-obtained New York medical license was revoked in 2010, was indicted in Allegany County on grand larceny and other criminal charges last summer. He pleaded guilty today to one count of Grand Larceny in the Fourth Degree before Justice Thomas P. Brown in Allegany County Court and faces up to 1 1/3 to 4 years in state prison. His sentencing is set for October 4.
Under a separate civil settlement reached with the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, Hudson, of Southfield, Michigan, also agreed to repay the state $300,000 for Medicaid payments made to him and other healthcare providers for services he provided and ordered.
“By misrepresenting his credentials, Hudson was able to dupe the state Medicaid system and steal thousands of dollars from New York taxpayers. His actions resulted in harm to an important program that helps patients in need—a crime my office will not tolerate,” Attorney General Schneiderman said. “My office will continue fighting to preserve the integrity of Medicaid by protecting recipients and recovering stolen taxpayer funds.”
The Attorney General’s civil suit, filed in Allegany County in September 2012, alleges that Hudson, 53, engaged in a course of misconduct in which he repeatedly falsified applications related to his medical degrees – including in applications for his state medical license and Medicaid provider enrollment. In 2007, Hudson misrepresented that he had successfully completed his undergraduate and residency training when he applied for and was granted a medical license from the State of New York. Then, in 2009, knowing that he was never fully trained to practice medicine nor duly licensed, Hudson obtained enrollment as a Medicaid provider based on an application he submitted to the New York State Department of Health in which he falsely represented that there were no proceedings pending that could result in the revocation of his medical license. In fact, only days before submitting his application to enroll as a Medicaid provider, Hudson was personally served with written notice that proceedings to revoke his license to practice medicine had been commenced before the State Board for Professional Medical Conduct. In 2010, those proceedings resulted in the actual revocation of Hudson’s medical license in New York.
Hudson, who remains incarcerated in the Allegany County jail, pleaded guilty in federal court in the Western District of New York in June to Health Care Fraud for filing false information to secure a job as a physician at Jones Memorial Hospital in Wellsville, N.Y. His federal sentencing is set for September.
In court documents filed in the criminal case, Hudson admitted that he personally obtained $21,630.24 from the Medicaid program on claims that were submitted for services from December 1, 2009, to May 7, 2010. Under the civil suit, he further agreed to return money he caused to be fraudulently received by other healthcare providers, who were unaware of Hudson’s scheme.
Attorney General EricT. Schneiderman thanked the New York State Department of Education and the New York State Department of Health for their cooperation with the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit investigation.
The investigation was conducted by Supervising Special Investigator Kathleen Donahue and Supervising Special Auditor-Investigator Raymond August.
The criminal case was handled by Gary Baldauf, Buffalo Regional Director of the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, and the civil case was handled by Sally Blinken, Special Assistant Attorney General of the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, both under the supervision of MFCU Special Deputy Attorney General Monica J. Hickey-Martin and Executive Deputy Attorney General for Criminal Justice Kelly Donovan.