Dr. King Faces Trial for Health Care Fraud

Jury selection began this morning in the trial of Dr. William King, a Pennsylvania gynecologist charged with defrauding health care insurer Blue Cross.

The criminal indictment against Dr. King lists upcoding, false documentation, and ghost visits as the means and manner of the fraud. According to the Department of Justice, King enlisted his wife to improperly represent on bills that he had performed expensive services when he had not, a practice known as upcoding. The indictment states that patients would regularly come in to the medical office for routine birth control injections, but King would bill for complex consultations in order to obtain a higher reimbursement from the insurance carrier.

Also described in the indictment are "ghost visits." DOJ's indictment charges King with billing for patient visits that never occurred. The indictment states that the insurance carrier paid King approximately $1,020,494 for false claims. The criminal indictment alleges 72 counts of health care and mail fraud.