Austin Doctor Gets 10 Years in Prison for Medicare Fraud

HOUSTON (AP) — An Austin physician has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison and must repay $1.2 million for Medicare fraud.  Dr. Dennis Barson was sentenced Monday in Houston.  Barson and his clinical administrator, Dario Juarez of Beeville, were convicted in November of conspiracy and health care fraud counts. An assistant medical director, Edgar Shakbazyan of Glendale, California, pleaded guilty in October on health care fraud charges related to kickbacks.

Shakbazyan was sentenced to eight years in prison. Juarez received a nearly 11-year federal prison term.  Prosecutors say the men in 2009 submitted fraudulent billing related to more than 400 patients for tests that were not done.  Barson was the only physician affiliated with the clinic in Houston but Juarez, identified by prosecutors as an unlicensed physician's assistant, saw patients.

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