NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — A Louisiana nurse practitioner was convicted on Thursday, July 24, for her role in a $12.1 million scheme to defraud Medicare.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 58-year-old Scharmaine Lawson Baker served as a nurse practitioner and was an enrolled Medicare provider. She was convicted for ordering medically unnecessary cancer genetic tests for hundreds of patients she never met or examined.
Baker was convicted on six counts of healthcare fraud. She is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 19 and faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on each count. A federal district court judge will determine her sentence.
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“Scharmaine Lawson Baker shamelessly exploited her medical license and the trust of vulnerable patients to enrich herself through a multi-million-dollar genetic testing fraud,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti…