Robert Lowes
October 07, 2015
Ophthalmologist David Ming Pon, MD, in Leesburg, Florida, was found guilty last week of cheating Medicare by pretending to perform procedures on patients who did not need them in the first place.
A federal jury in Jacksonville, Florida, convicted Dr Pon on 20 counts of healthcare fraud. He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison for each count.
Federal prosecutors said that the 57-year-old Dr Pon lied to more than 500 Medicare patients that they had age-related wet macular degeneration and then billed the government for laser photocoagulation that was never performed. He indeed aimed a laser at patients’ eyes, but he set the energy at such a low level that nobody’s leaky blood vessels were ever sealed. The scam lasted from the mid-2000s through at least September 2011 and netted Dr Pon more than $7 million, according to the Department of Justice.
Dr Pon’s attorneys argued that the eye surgeon diagnosed and treated patients in good faith. “His objective was to help his patients,” they stated in a court filing.
His sentencing is set for March 14, 2016.