St. Louis Physician Sustains Second Conviction for Health Care

St. Louis, MO – Dr. Devon Golding, 72, of St. Louis County, was convicted by a jury today in U.S. District Court in St. Louis for participating in a conspiracy to commit health care fraud and four substantive counts of health care fraud.  Dr. Golding’s trial took place before Judge Audrey G. Fleissig, who ordered a presentence report and set a sentencing hearing for January 29, 2019.

The jury found that Dr. Golding and other doctors solicited and received illegal kickbacks from Allegiance Medical Services, a clinical laboratory, in return for referring and sending blood and urine specimens to Allegiance for testing. Allegiance then billed Medicare and Medicaid for the testing of the specimens and gave Dr. Golding and other doctors kickbacks, derived from the payments received from Medicare and Medicaid. Golding knew that Medicare and Medicaid would not pay for any service provided in violation of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute. 

In 2015, Dr. Golding was convicted of health care fraud and false statements in connection with another scheme in which he improperly billed Medicare and Medicaid for non-rendered physician services and also signed blank prescription pads on which he permitted a non-qualified nurse to write prescriptions for controlled substances.  

The misconduct involved in the present trial predated Golding’s 2015 conviction.  Dr. Golding is excluded from participation in Medicare and Medicaid as a result of his 2015 conviction. 

This case was investigated by the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of by the Health and Human Services, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Missouri Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the Missouri Attorney General’s Office. Assistant United States Attorneys Dorothy McMurtry and Gil Sison handled the case for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.