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A Dublin doctor, who operated the New River Medical Associates, Inc., pleaded guilty Thursday in U.S. Federal Court to Health Care Fraud.
Dr. Linda Sue Cheek, 59, of Dublin, pleaded guilty to the charge in Roanoke Thursday. Dr. Cheek pleaded guilty to participating in a scheme to knowingly and willfully defraud the Medicaid and Medicare health care programs for her own personal financial gain from January 2002 to March 2006. Cheek will be sentenced on May 15, 2008 in United States District Court in Roanoke. She faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. Assistant United States Attorneys Patrick Hogeboom and Charlene Day, in presenting their case against Cheek, said the defendant, who was a licensed physician by the Commonwealth of Virginia, operated New River Medical Associates, Inc. located in Dublin and the facility operated primarily as a pain management and alternative medicine practice. Cheek admitted in Federal Court Thursday that between January 2002 and March 2006 she submitted a series of false Medicare and Medicaid claims relating to her medical practice, including the practice of billing Medicaid and Medicare for services she had not performed. In addition, Cheek admitted to billing Medicaid for services she claimed to perform herself that were in fact performed by one or both of the two nurse practitioners employed by New River Medical Associates. However, Cheek admitted that during many of these procedures she was out of the office and, at times, out of the country. Finally, Cheek admitted to billing Medicaid for individual treatments called “cleansing sessions,” an investigational service. These “cleansing sessions” were performed and billed as regular, individual office visits but were carried out in a group setting. Medicaid, Medicare and other insurance providers do not allow medical professionals to bill for group sessions. “This joint case demonstrates the positive results we can achieve when all levels of law enforcement work together,” said Bob McDonnell, Attorney General, Commonwealth of Virginia. “I specifically want to thank the United States Attorney’s Office, the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General, and our Medicaid Fraud Control Unit for their work in this operation. Health care fraud significantly impacts Virginia citizens, and costs taxpayers. Successful investigations such as this one are essential to putting an end to health care fraud in the Commonwealth.” “The taxpayers spend billions of dollars to support the Medicare and Medicaid health care programs. Physicians, like Dr. Cheek, who defraud those important programs for their own desire for personal wealth, must be prosecuted and punished,” said U.S. Attorney John L. Brownlee. “I am grateful to all the members of law enforcement for their outstanding work on this investigation." This case against Dr. Cheek was investigated for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Virginia by the Virginia Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General.
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Lizzie Borden was tried for the brutal axe murders of her father and stepmother in late 19th century New England. Though she was acquitted, the trial stirred pubic interest, and she was widely believed to be guilty. No one else was ever tried, and Borden was ostracized until her death in 1927. The case's notoriety has endured in American pop culture and is still referenced today. What popular poem helped perpetuate the idea that Borden was guilty?