A doctor for a Chicago surgical center was convicted of health care fraud Thursday after a federal jury found he billed insurance companies $3.5 million in operations that never occurred.
Dr. Paul Madison, 65, was deemed guilty of six counts of health care fraud, three counts of lying about delivery of medical treatment and two counts of aggravated identity theft, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney Office for the Northern District of Illinois.
Dr. Madison served as an anesthesiologist and pain management specialist for Watertower SurgiCenter, LLC, a surgical center he owned at 845 N. Michigan Ave., prosecutors said. From 2005 to 2009, he ordered staffers to file bills for surgery operations that did not actually happen.
He was indicted in 2012 on federal charges that he issued phony bills totaling over $3.5 million and ultimately bilked insurance companies of more than $783,000, according to the FBI. State regulators caught him in 2007, and he responded by telling his director of billing to purge patient files and lie to investigators.
The insurance claim forms Dr. Madison submitted to patients’ insurance companies also bore falsified identities, prosecutors said. At least twice, he fudged patients’ names, addresses and birthdays without their knowledge.
His sentencing takes place in March and could carry a maximum of 79 years.
