A Texas orthopedic surgeon was sentenced Tuesday to 8.5 years in federal prison for his role in a $145 million health care fraud scheme that targeted injured federal workers and government insurance programs. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Dr. Michael Taba, 61, of McKinney, Texas, received 102 months in prison and was ordered to pay over $13 million in restitution for conspiracy and health care fraud convictions.
Prosecutors said the sentence underscores the seriousness of health care fraud tied to government benefit programs and the ongoing efforts to recover taxpayer dollars and protect patient safety. Taba’s sentencing comes nearly two and a half years after his conviction by a federal jury in the Northern District of Texas.
Evidence at trial showed that Taba accepted bribes and kickbacks from pharmacy owners in return for prescribing expensive compound creams that were medically unnecessary and billed to the Department of Labor’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (DOL-OWCP) and insurers. Those creams were mixed at low cost but billed at up to $16,000 per prescription, and patients testified they were ineffective or caused adverse reactions…