PITTSBURGH - A resident of Murrysville, Pennsylvania, was sentenced in federal court following his convictions for unlawful dispensing and distributing Schedule II controlled substances and health care fraud, United States Attorney Cindy K. Chung announced today.
Senior United States District Judge Nora Barry Fischer sentenced Yee Chung Ho, age 72, a physician, to three years of probation, including 180 days of home detention. Ho also was ordered to pay restitution totaling $6,500 to Medicare, and to forfeit his Drug Enforcement Administration number, Pennsylvania state license to practice medicine, and $89,280.00 to the United States. Ho was further ordered to serve 250 hours of community service.
During the defendant’s plea hearing on November 9, 2021, Ho admitted that, while practicing as a licensed medical doctor at his family medicine practice located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he knowingly dispensed and distributed Schedule II drugs, specifically, Oxycodone, to a patient outside the usual course of professional practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose. Ho also admitted that, from April 2018 through June 2019, he committed health care fraud by causing fraudulent claims to be submitted to Medicare for payments to cover the costs of unlawfully prescribed drugs.
Assistant United States Attorneys Robert Cessar and Karen Gal-Or and Special Assistant United States Attorney Edward Song are prosecuting this case on behalf of the government.
The investigation leading to the filing of charges in this case was conducted by the Western Pennsylvania Opioid Fraud and Abuse Detection Unit (OFADU). The Western Pennsylvania OFADU, led by federal prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, combines the expertise and resources of federal and state law enforcement to address the role played by unethical medical professionals in the opioid epidemic.
The agencies which comprise the Western Pennsylvania OFADU include: Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Health and Human Services – Office of Inspector General, Drug Enforcement Administration, Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigations, Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General - Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General – Bureau of Narcotic Investigations, United States Postal Inspection Service, U.S. Attorney’s Office – Criminal Division, Civil Division and Asset Forfeiture Unit, Department of Veterans Affairs-Office of Inspector General, Food and Drug Administration-Office of Criminal Investigations, U.S. Office of Personnel Management – Office of Inspector General and the Pennsylvania Bureau of Licensing.
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