Ga. Woman Pleads Guilty to Health Fraud

ATLANTA (MyFOX ATLANTA) - A Tucker woman charged with health care fraud, pleaded guilty Tuesday in a federal court.

Forty-six-year-old Chaunsay Beckwith pleaded guilty to charges of health care fraud in connection with the clinic she owned, International Alternative Medicine.

Beckwith was indicted on 35 counts of fraud by a federal grand jury December 16, 2008.

According to information presented in court, between 2003 and 2007, Beckwith, who does not hold any type of medical license, provided hyperbaric oxygen therapy to numerous patients in her Tucker clinic.

Prosecutors said none of the patients were diagnosed with medical conditions that made them eligible to receive payments from health care benefit programs, but Beckwith submitted $1,577,827 in claims to insurance companies and Medicare. The claims included false diagnosis codes that enabled her to fraudulently receive $1,035,144 in payments for the hyperbaric chamber treatments.

"Hyperbaric chambers have a number of legitimate medical uses, as varied as helping burn victims and even scuba divers in their recovery. This defendant, however, turned a hyperbaric chamber into a means of generating over a million dollars in fraudulent claims. Health care fraud raises the costs of health care for everyone," said United States Attorney David E. Nahmias.

Beckwith could receive a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.