Free cosmetic surgery offered in massive California health fraud scheme

Patients were promised free liposuction, nose jobs, breast augmentation and vaginal rejuvenation for free if they helped fudge paperwork by signing "testimonial” letters. Photo: Levi Meir Clancy/Unsplash

In a surgical clinic in the California desert, what appeared on paperwork as "medically necessary” was more than a mirage. Explanations given to insurers were as phony as the breasts implanted in scores of patients.

The former executive director of The Morrow Institute clinic pleaded guilty Friday in US District Court to a health care fraud conspiracy in which she billed insurance companies between US$25mil (RM104mil) and US$65mil (RM272mil) from 2007 to 2011 for procedures that were merely cosmetic. She faces up to 20 years in prison.