A doctor from Cleveland was sentenced to serve five years in prison for healthcare fraud in connection to fraudulent hospice operations throughout the Mississippi Delta.
According to court documents, 58-year-old Scott Nelson was a medical director for numerous fraudulent hospice operations in north Mississippi.
Nelson was convicted by a jury after a two-week trial in April of 2022 after evidence showed that numerous hospice patients that Nelson referred to hospice were not terminally ill. Instead, the individuals were still relatively healthy and able to testify at the trial almost ten years after Nelson put them on hospice.
The court found that Nelson was responsible for over $16 million in fraudulent payments from Medicare to various hospice organizations.
On Wednesday, Nelson was sentenced to serve 60 months in prison and pay $15 million in restitution by Chief U.S. District Judge Debra Brown in Greenville.