A Louisiana clinic owner has been sentenced to over six years in prison for misdiagnosing children with mental illnesses and fraudulently billing Medicaid upward of $1.8 million.
According to a Jan. 20 news release from the Justice Department, Victor Clark Kirk, 73, was convicted of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and healthcare fraud.
Mr. Kirk owned St. Gabriel Health Clinic, a clinic that provided routine healthcare services in elementary and high schools. According to the Justice Department, Mr. Kirk instructed his staff to lead in-school educational sessions with students, including "Character Counts" sessions designed to teach children character traits.
Between 2011 and 2015, Mr. Kirk billed these sessions as group psychotherapy and instructed his staff to falsely diagnose students with mental illnesses like attention deficit disorder and impulse control disorder. Mr. Kirk received $1.84 million in fraudulent payments from the Louisiana Medicaid program from these claims.
In addition to his sentence, a judge ordered Mr. Kirk to pay $1.8 million in restitution to Louisiana Medicaid.