Former Georgia Insurance Commissioner and gubernatorial candidate John Oxendine pleaded guilty in federal court Friday to conspiracy to commit health-care fraud in a scheme involving the ordering of unnecessary medical tests.
Oxendine, 61, admitted that his insurance consulting business ordered the tests from a lab company in Texas in return for hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks, working with a co-conspirator, Dr. Jeffrey Gallups.
Oxendine, a Republican from Johns Creek, was elected insurance commissioner in 1994 and served four terms. He ran for governor in 2010 but finished fourth in the GOP primary.
According to U.S. Attorney Ryan Buchanan, Oxendine and Gallups submitted fraudulent insurance claims for medically unnecessary tests from Next Health, a lab in Texas. Physicians associated with Gallups’ ear, nose, and throat practice were pressured to order the tests.
The lab company agreed to pay Oxendine and Gallups a kickback of 50% of the profit from eligible specimens Gallups’ practice submitted to the company.
Comments