A Bakersfield legal professional who Orange County prosecutors stated constructed a $22 million empire by fraudulently billing insurance coverage companies for urine exams that have been both not wanted or not accomplished has been sentenced to 2 years in jail.
Philip Ganong, 70, pleaded no contest Monday to 10 counts of submitting fraudulent claims for a well being profit at a sequence of sober residing properties his household operated in Southern California.
Ganong, his spouse and their son collected urine samples from workers and sufferers staying at their properties. They created labs to check that urine. They usually charged insurance coverage corporations, typically tons of of {dollars} per pattern, to research it. However typically the exams have been both not finished or not wanted, and the prescriptions have been cast, prosecutors stated on the time.
Ganong’s spouse, Pamela, is awaiting a psychological well being competency listening to Nov. 28 to find out if she will be able to stand trial on expenses of submitting fraudulent claims for well being profit. Their son, William, died in a home fireplace in 2019.
A co-defendant, Susan Lee Stinson, pleaded responsible final week to 2 fraud expenses and was sentenced to 34 days in jail.
The Ganong case highlighted the work of a particular process drive established by former District Lawyer Tony Rackauckas. It was one of many staff’s first instances within the aftermath of an investigation by Southern California Information Group into abuses inside the so-called “Rehab Riviera” within the Los Angeles basin.
The investigation discovered:
- Drug counselors and others may run sober residing properties and a few varieties of remedy facilities with out passing any sort of legal background verify. Even folks convicted of drug crimes have been allowed, beneath state legislation, to get a license to personal and/or function drug and alcohol rehab facilities.
- Addicts and households contemplating rehab had no straightforward option to verify the information of remedy facilities, restoration properties or their house owners.
- The state lags behind others in adopting reforms to crack down on remedy heart operators who exploit susceptible addicts and focus extra on income than on efficient care.
