Louisiana Nurse Practitioner Convicted of $2M Medicare Fraud
US Attorney's Office, May 2, 2025
A federal jury convicted a Louisiana nurse practitioner yesterday for her role in an over $2 million health care fraud scheme.
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Shanone Chatman-Ashley, 45, of Opelousas, was a nurse practitioner and enrolled provider with Medicare. Chatman-Ashley worked as an independent contractor for companies that purportedly provided telehealth services to Medicare beneficiaries. As part of the scheme, the defendant caused the submission of false and fraudulent claims to Medicare for medically unnecessary durable medical equipment (DME). Chatman-Ashley routinely ordered knee braces, suspension sleeves, and other types of DME for patients who had not been examined by her or another medical provider. Chatman-Ashley concealed the scheme by signing documentation falsely certifying that she had consulted with the beneficiaries and personally conducted assessments of them. From 2017 to 2019, the defendant signed more than 1,000 orders for medically unnecessary DME, causing over $2 million in fraudulent Medicare claims and over $1 million in reimbursements. In exchange for the orders, Chatman-Ashley received kickbacks and bribes from the telehealth services companies.
“Today, a Louisiana jury convicted Shanone Chatman-Ashley of health care fraud for brazenly cheating Medicare out of its limited resources,” said Matthew R. Galeotti, the Head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Dishonest medical practitioners put significant strain on our health care system and reduce the quality of patient care. The Department of Justice will not tolerate medical professionals who fraudulently enrich themselves at the expense of American taxpayers. I thank the prosecutors and our law enforcement partners who worked tirelessly on this case in the pursuit of justice.”
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