A Whitefish physician accused in connection with alleged schemes to defraud government health programs admitted on Wednesday to falsely billing Medicare and other health programs in a telemedicine scheme that resulted in more than $39 million in false billing. The defendant, Ronald David Dean, 64, had an initial appearance and pleaded guilty to an information filed on June 24 charging him with conspiracy to commit wire fraud. A plea agreement filed in the case calls for Dean to pay at least $780,509 restitution. The government alleged in court documents that Dean, a licensed physician, was paid by a telemedicine company to sign orders for durable medical equipment that patients did not need. Dean then fraudulently charged Medicare, CHAMPVA, and the Railroad Retirement Board programs for telemedicine office visits that did not occur. The telemedicine company also used Dean’s information to prescribe unneeded and unnecessary covid tests to patients. The conspiracy ran from about January 2022 until July 2023. In total, Dean’s orders resulted in false billing to government healthcare programs of more than $39 million.
