Austin, TX – The Texas Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC) recently announced that on March 24, 2022, a U.S. district judge sentenced Clinton Battle, M.D. of Arlington to 12 years in federal prison based on a conviction and guilty plea from July 2021. Battle admitted to submitting fraudulent bills for physical therapy, office exams, and functional capacity evaluations for a period of five years starting in 2012.
During that time, Battle mischaracterized services so he could bill at a higher rate. In several cases, Battle also billed for services that he claimed took longer than they actually did, were never conducted, or were conducted by unlicensed staff.
For these actions and others including illegally issuing prescriptions for controlled substances, Battle was sentenced to a total of 144 months, with 60 months directly related to submitting fraudulent workers’ compensation medical bills. He will also have to pay $376,368 in restitution and be under supervised release for three years after his imprisonment.
“Health care fraud impacts everyone in the Texas workers’ compensation system, and thanks to the teamwork between the Texas Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC) Fraud Unit and federal investigators, we were able to ensure justice was served in this case,” says DWC Deputy Commissioner of Compliance and Investigations Debra Knight.
The DWC Fraud Unit, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Dallas Field Division, the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Postal Service, and the IRS conducted the investigation.
Source: TDI-DWC