Owner Of Treatment Facility Pleads Guilty To Health Care Fraud

Tampa, Florida – Marcus Anderson (34, St. Petersburg) has pleaded guilty to health care fraud. He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison. A sentencing date has not yet been set.

According to court documents, in April 2011, Anderson opened a treatment facility that offered counseling services in St. Petersburg, Florida. Beginning in or about May 2015, and continuing through April 2018, Anderson stole and misused the billing credentials of doctors to submit more than $1.2 million in false and fraudulent claims to the Florida Medicaid program and related managed care organizations. Anderson sought payment for these fraudulent claims long after the rendering providers had left his employment. The bogus claims also included services that patients had never even received. Anderson falsely claimed that some patients had received counseling and related services at his treatment facility, when he knew the patients were not there. Some patients were hospitalized or in residential living facilities when Anderson falsely claiming they were in his care. The treatment facility was shuttered in 2018.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) and the Florida Office of Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristen A. Fiore.