ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – An Anchorage Rheumatologist and her husband have pleaded guilty to running a years-long healthcare fraud scheme that prosecutors say brought in more than $12 million and involved lying to patients about what substances they were being injected with, billing insures for medications they never purchased and evading federal taxes.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Dr. Claribel Tan, 61, and her husband, Daniel Tan, 70, operated a rheumatology clinic in Anchorage and admitted to defrauding health insurance companies and evading more than $4 million in taxes on the profits of the scheme. Dr. Tan treated autoimmune and musculoskeletal conditions and administered injectable medications at the clinic, while her husband oversaw office and management duties.
Prosecutors said that beginning in 2009, Dr. Tan routinely under-dosed patients, injected them with expired medication, substituted samples or different drugs than prescribed, and sometimes used medications purchased by other patients. The Tans then billed insurance plans as if each patient received a full and proper injection. Court documents say the clinic only bought 369 units of medication but billed for administering 4,829 units. Investigators estimate the discrepancy caused insurers to lose about $12.5 million across more than 10 health plans…