A California doctor ordered X-rays for healthy patients. Now he’s going to prison
A Sacramento Superior Court judge sentence a Lodi orthopedic surgeon to seven years in prison in a case involving Medicare and Medi-Cal fraud, according to California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
Dr. Gary Wisner, who practiced at 621 S. Ham Lane in Lodi, was convicted of giving excessive and medically unjustifiable X-rays to 10 patients from 2012-16. Investigators with the California Department of Justice chose these patients randomly from the 26,000 individuals under Wisner’s care and examined their files for abuses.
“Gary Wisner used both his patients and state resources to line his own pockets,” Bonta said. “Due to his dishonest behavior, patients at his clinic had to undergo unnecessary medical tests so he could steal from the state’s Medi-Cal funds.
Multiple government agencies suspected Wisner of over-billing the Medi-Cal and Medicare programs, Bonta’s office noted, and the state Justice Department’s Division of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse teamed up with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office, and the California Department of Insurance on Wisner’s case.
According to the court filings, Wisner administered X-rays even when patients came for routine office visits, and he would X-ray multiple parts of a patient’s body, even if the patient’s condition did not merit it.
Investigators found that Wisner had subjected the 10 patients whose files they had studied to hundreds of unnecessary X-rays over the four-year time-frame. Wisner was sentenced in Sacramento Superior Court on Friday.
Bonta noted that the Medi-Cal fraud division often relies upon whistleblowers to report fraud. They can do so at oag.ca.gov/dmfea/reporting.
The federal government funds Medi-Cal in collaboration with the state of California, and the Division of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse received three-quarters of its 2021-22 funding — $50.5 million — from an HHS grant.
This story was originally published September 6, 2022 at 1:06 PM.
