Oklahoma physician hit with $580,000 settlement to resolve false Medicare billing allegations
Government alleged that Gordon Laird caused false claims to be submitted to Medicare for service not provided.
Credit: Matthew Bisanz.
An Oklahoma City physician will pay $580,000 to settle civil allegations that he violated the False Claims Act by submitting false claims to Medicare, the Department of Justice announced.
Gordon P. Laird, who is licensed in Oklahoma, is a former owner and employee of the Blackwell Feet Plus and Feet Plus practices. Feet Plus later did business as Prevention Plus.
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The government alleged that Laird caused false claims to be submitted to Medicare that he neither provided nor supervised, including in 2011, when he allegedly allowed Prevention Plus to use his National Provider Identifier numbers to bill Medicare for evaluation and management physical therapy services that he didn't provide or oversee. Additionally, allegations against Laird state that in December 2011, he separated from Prevention Plus, ceased services for Prevention Plus, and deactivated his NPIs connected to Prevention Plus.
Then, in March 2012, the government claimed he reactivated those NPIs so Prevention Plus could use them to bill Medicare for services in January and February 2012. Those billings were for services Laird neither provided nor supervised, the DOJ said.
The settlement does not include any admission of liability on Laird's part.
Twitter: @BethJSanborn
Email the writer: beth.sandborn@himssmedia.com
