Husband and wife John Johnson, MD, and Paula Johnson, MD, of Hollidaysburg, Pa., were sentenced for conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and healthcare fraud conspiracy.
In 2016, Dr. John Johnson entered into an agreement with other individuals to illegally bill health insurance companies for expensive urine drug tests, according to a Sept. 20 news release from the Justice Department.
Dr. John Johnson and his business partner Rodney Yentzer carried out the scheme through multiple pain management practices throughout Pennsylvania, Lighthouse Medical and Pain Medicine of York.
Lighthouse Medical sold its urine drug test laboratory services to a critical access hospital on the Florida-Alabama border. The hospital purchased the right to bill and collect payment from patients and insurance programs in exchange for paying Lighthouse Medical a kickback of $900 per test. In July 2016, the hospital paid Lighthouse Medical more than $1.4 million for more than 1,500 drug tests.
In June 2017, Dr. John Johnson was sentenced to 84 months in prison for tax offenses, conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud in connection with a different healthcare fraud scheme. Before being imprisoned Dr. John Johnson had Dr. Paula Johnson placed on Pain Medicine of York's payroll. At that point, Dr. Paula Johnson had not practiced medicine in years.
From 2017 through 2019, Pain Medicine of York billed Medicare for about $10 million for the tests, with more than $4 million being paid out. Drs. John and Paula Johnson, along with Mr. Yentzer continued to funnel money to the Johnsons.
Both Drs. John and Paula Johnson pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charges. Dr. John Johnson was sentenced to 97 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $2.3 million in restitution. Dr. Paula Johnson was sentenced to three years of probation and was ordered to pay $249,301 in restitution, fines and assessments.
Mr. Yentzer, who had no medical training, pleaded guilty for his role in related offenses in March 2022 and is awaiting sentencing, the release said.