From D Magazine, by Will Maddox:
- Drs. Desi and Deno Barroga were indicted for allegedly receiving $12 million from fraudulent claims and illegally distributing hydrocodone to patients from the Dallas pain management clinic where they operated.
- While at the clinic, the Barrogas would bill insurance for injections of anti-inflammatory steroids without administering the medicine. According to the indictment, the doctors would put a needle against the patient’s skin without piercing the skin to mimic an injection.
- The physicians allegedly billed for 80 injections on a patient in a single visit. Court records show that the clinic sometimes billed more than $4,000 for services on a single day for a patient.
- The clinic allegedly created fake health records to reflect the fraudulent billing, often copying and pasting the record from patient to patient with little to no variation. The Barrogas submitted the false records to the insurance companies to justify the alleged fraud. The defendant billed insurance companies for $50 million, of which they were paid $12 million for the fraudulent work.