Anchorage, AK man sentenced to jail for health care fraud

January 23rd, 2010 - 12:53 am ICT by BNO News  

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA (BNO NEWS) – An Anchorage, Alaska man on Thursday was sentenced to prison following convictions for health care fraud and for obtaining narcotic controlled substances by misrepresentation and forgery, prosecutors said on Friday.

Stephen M. Young was sentenced to serve nine months in federal prison after pleading guilty in November 2009 to carrying out a lengthy fraudulent scheme to obtain prescription on narcotic pain-killing medication from numerous physicians, dentists, and nurse practitioners in Anchorage and Wasilla.

Young admitted that on over 100 occasions from 2005 to 2009, he lied to numerous health care professionals in order to obtain the medication. As part of the plea agreement, Young also admitted that he had fraudulently obtained at least $69,416.40 in federal employee health insurance benefits as a result of his scheme. He agreed to make restitution to the United States for the fraudulently obtained benefits.

The U.S. District Court Judge noted that there was no indication that Young was distributing any of the medication and that his fraud scheme was motivated to feed his own addiction to the narcotic pain-killing medication.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Office of Inspector General conducted this investigation.

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