Indiana Northern District Court in Hammond

Merrillville doctor sentenced to prison for healthcare fraud

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Hammond – Johann Farley, 60 years old, of Crown Point, Indiana, was sentenced by United States District Court Judge Philip P. Simon, after pleading guilty to health care fraud.

Farley was sentenced to 12 months and 1 day in prison to be followed by 1 year of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay restitution totaling $557,000 to Indiana Medicaid ($444,000) and Medicare ($113,000).

According to documents in the case, Farley was a physician who ran an addiction treatment practice in Merrillville, Indiana. Many of his patients struggled with opioid addiction and relied on him to treat their addiction.

Farley required these patients to come to his office frequently, sometimes on a daily basis, but the visits only lasted a few minutes, and his patients often did not even see him.

For over four years, Farley submitted claims to Medicaid and Medicare falsely representing that he had complex, extended visits with his patients for several hours each week.

According to the charging document, the patient visits Farley billed Medicaid for are prescribed by the American Medical Association. The AMA defined those visits as typically taking 40 minutes for an individual or a family.

In total, between January 2016 and May 2020, Farley billed Medicaid and Medicare for more than 7,000 services he did not provide and was paid more than $557,000 for work he never performed.

The case was investigated by the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the Indiana Attorney General’s Office, the United States Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Drug Enforcement Administration. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Kevin F. Wolff and Steven J. Lupa.

Story Posted:10/06/2024