Arkansas doctor gets 2 years in prison in fraud case


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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A Little Rock doctor whose clinic improperly billed massage therapy services as physical therapy has received two years in prison and has been ordered to pay insurers and patients more than $700,000 in restitution.

Robert Barrow was sentenced Monday, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (http://bit.ly/2au6ANO ) reports. He had pleaded guilty to health care fraud conspiracy, and said that he had been deliberately ignorant to the fact that his office used a billing code for physical therapy services to seek get more than $2.2 million over a seven-year period for services which are not usually covered by insurance companies.

Federal prosecutors say Barrow contracted two massage therapists to use space at the Your Doctor's Office clinic and that in exchange for low rent and overhead expenses, the therapists agreed to give Barrow a percentage of the profits from services they performed on patients Barrow referred for physical therapy.

Authorities say an investigation showed that patients believed they'd been receiving and paying for physical therapy.

Barrow maintained that billing errors were his staff's fault, but told a judge that he did not regularly review the therapists' records to make sure patients were being properly treated and progressing.

The investigation was started after an insurance employee was surprised that the small clinic was the second-highest biller of physical therapy services in the state, even surpassing clinics that specialize in rehabilitative and physical therapy services.

Barrow's medical license has been suspended after he pleaded guilty.

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Information from: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, http://www.arkansasonline.com

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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