Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette on Wednesday announced that Dr. David Johnson, 51, was sentenced to 218 days in jail and 5 years probation for committing Medicaid fraud. Johnson is also required to pay $1.7 million in restitution. The scheme was operated through Livernois Dental in Detroit which Johnson owned and operated but has since sold.
“This man used the guise of dental treatment to intentionally steal from the taxpayers of this state who fund Medicaid,” said Schuette.
Johnson was originally charged in May 2017 but was outside the country at the time and evaded arrest until the U.S. Marshals Service caught up with him in September 2017 in the Dominican Republic. He has been in the Ingham County Jail since his return to Michigan.
“Johnson may well have escaped justice but for the exemplary work of the U.S. Marshals Service,” Schuette added. “I would also like to thank Delta Dental for playing a prominent role in bring the illegal activity of Dr. Johnson to light.”
Johnson was sentenced on Wednesday, May 2, before District Judge Richard D. Ball, sitting in for Ingham County Circuit Court Judge James S. Jamo.
Schuette’s Health Care Fraud Division began an investigation into Johnson after receiving an allegation that he was billing the Medicaid program using the identifying information of another dentist. Johnson could not directly bill Medicaid himself because he was on the Medicaid exclusion list following earlier Medicaid fraud convictions in 2006. The Medicaid exclusion list is a list of health care providers prohibited from billing the Medicaid program. Johnson’s scheme effectively hid his activity from the program until Schuette’s office became involved.
Johnson used this scheme to improperly bill Medicaid and private insurance $1.7 million over the course of three years.
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