Marvin Clifton, MD, age 71, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison following his conviction for making false statements relating to healthcare matters. The Court further sentenced Dr. Clifton to two years of supervised release following his term of imprisonment, and ordered him to pay a $50,000 fine and a $100 special assessment. According to admissions made as part of Dr. Clifton’s guilty plea, Dr. Clifton was a licensed physician whose medical practice included physical therapy. His patients included individuals that received medical benefits under the Office of Workers’ Compensation Program (“Workers’ Comp Program”).
Between January 2015 and January 2019, Dr. Clifton engaged in a scheme to obtain money from the Workers’ Comp Program to which he was not entitled, by knowingly and willfully falsifying and concealing material facts. Dr. Clifton directed his office managers to falsify medical bills which claimed that Dr. Clifton had provided medical treatment such as physical therapy to Workers’ Comp patients, when he had not in fact provided the services. In some instances, Dr. Clifton would direct his office managers to bill for treatment on days his office was closed, and on other occasions, Dr. Clifton directed his office managers to bill for longer treatment sessions than what had actually been provided. These falsified medical bills were then sent to the United States Department of Labor at Dr. Clifton’s direction. Throughout the course of this scheme, and through numerous transactions, Dr. Clifton submitted over $500,000 of falsified bills, through which he obtained approximately $340,342.58 in federal funds from the United States Department of Labor to which he was not entitled.
