Shreveport Woman Sentenced for Health Care, Wire Fraud

The owner and operator of a Shreveport intensive outpatient program company is sentenced to just over two years in prison for charging Medicare for services never rendered.

U.S. Attorney Stephanie Finley says 43-year-old Sharon Monroe was sentenced for one count of health care fraud and one of wire fraud. She was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay nearly $1-million in restitution.

According to evidence presented at the September 11, 2014, guilty plea, Monroe, owner of Monroe Medical Management LLC, submitted fraudulent claims to Medicare for Part B psychotherapy services from 2007 to 2011. The services were never performed. She also used physicians' Medicare provider numbers to submit claims without the physicians' knowledge.

In some cases, she claimed her employees rendered services in excess of 24 hours a day, that some of her employees were qualified to perform services when they were not, and that some of the services were performed at medical offices when they were not.