36-year-old Ray Anthony Shoulders, of Fort Worth, Texas, was convicted on Monday on all counts of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and 12 counts of healthcare fraud, following less than an hour of jury deliberation. He awaits sentencing.
U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, Leigha Simonton, stated, “Not only did this defendant attempt to scam Medicare out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, he did something far worse by potentially endangering his patients’ health in recommending that they be injected with a drug that had not been approved for that purpose.” She added that Shoulders sought to profit from his patients’ pain for his own financial benefit.
Evidence presented at the trial revealed that Shoulders and his co-conspirators submitted fraudulent claims amounting to $788,000 and received over $614,000 in reimbursements from Medicare. The funds were for injecting amniotic fluid – the liquid that surrounds a fetus during gestation – into patients’ connective tissue in a non-approved attempt to relieve joint pain.