North Alabama Doctor Sentenced for Health Care Fraud:
United States District Judge Inge P. Johnson has sentenced Diana K. McCutcheon to one year and one day in prison on four counts of health care fraud and two counts of wire fraud. She also agreed to pay the same amount to the government as proceeds of the illegal activity. McCutcheon, a physician in Lauderdale County, was part of a scheme totaling about $1 million in connection with billing a health insurer and Medicare for non-reimbursable cosmetic skin treatments.
McCutcheon conducted her fraud through medical clinics that she ran in Elgin and Lexington North Alabama. According to court records, she operated this scheme from 2007 to 2011 in an attempt to defraud Blue Cross Blue Shield and Medicare. McCutcheon fraudulently billed for the removal of multiple skin lesions on patients who had received cosmetic laser surgery and other treatments to various skin ailments. The conditions included wrinkles, age spots, and sun spots which were not covered by insurance.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama, and the United States Department of Health and Human Services investigated the case. Assistant United States Attorneys Russel E. Penfield and Ramona Albin are prosecuting the case.
