After a three-day trial in Houston, Texas, a federal jury convicted Gwendolyn Climmons-Johnson of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and four counts of health care fraud.  According to a DOJ press release, Climmons-Johnson was the owner and operator of Urgent Response EMS, which provided non-emergency ambulance services to Medicare beneficiaries in the Houston area.  From January 2010 until December 2011, Climmons-Johnson and her co-conspirators submitted false and fraudulent claims for approximately $2.4 million to Medicare for ambulance services that were not medically necessary and/or not provided.  The evidence presented at trial showed that patient records had been falsified in that many Medicare beneficiaries that Climmons-Johnson had billed Medicare for did not need ambulance services and were not in the condition stated in the records.  Climmons-Johnson faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for each count when she is sentenced on February 7, 2014.

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