Medical Imaging Provider Sentenced for Federal Health Care Fraud

TOPEKA, KAN. B A man who owned a medical imaging business was sentenced Thursday to 18 months in federal prison for health care fraud, U.S. Attorney Tom Beall said. In addition, the defendant was ordered to pay more than $1.5 million in restitution to Medicare and Medicaid.

Cody Lee West, 38, Paragould, Ark., owner of C & S Imaging, Inc., pleaded guilty to one count of health care fraud. C & S Imaging was a mobile independent diagnostic testing facility that provided ultra sound diagnostic testing to health care providers.

In his plea, West admitted he solicited chiropractors and told them he could provide equipment and an operator at no cost to them. West fraudulently billed Medicare for musculoskeletal exams and Doppler scans that allowed him to receive up to $410 per patient for services that were not ordered by a physician, not medically necessary, not performed or not documented. He also used fraudulent methods to attempt to provide documentation for some of his bills.

Beall commended the Department of Health and Human Services, the Kansas Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Tanya Treadway for their work on the case.