Brown Arrests Former Healthcare Clinic Manager for $2.2 Million Medi-Cal Rip-off

Friday, October 9, 2009
Contact: (916) 210-6000, agpressoffice@doj.ca.gov

Siskiyou County – Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. announced that he has filed criminal charges against the former manager of a Mount Shasta-based medical clinic who filed “bogus claims” under Medi-Cal for medical services that were never performed.

Denise Fairhurst, 57, of Redding, was arrested Wednesday on five criminal counts of grand theft, insurance fraud and submitting false claims to the government. She is being held in Siskiyou County Jail on $1 million dollar bail. Arraignment is set for today in Siskiyou Superior Court at 3:00 p.m.

“Fairhurst ran a health clinic that was losing money and in danger of closing because of widespread financial mismanagement,” Brown said. “To keep her operation afloat, she submitted bogus claims to Medi-Cal and in the process violated California law.”

Brown’s criminal complaint, filed in Siskiyou Superior Court, contends that between January 2004 and December 2007, Fairhurst, the former manager of Alpine Healthcare Clinic, billed Medi-Cal $2.2 million for services not rendered to beneficiaries to help pay Alpine’s operations and management. In addition, Fairhurst used $33,492 of the funds to pay personal credit card bills.

The clinic’s financial problems stemmed from Fairhurst’s inability to set appropriate compensation rates for employees and physicians. For instance, a member of the maintenance staff was paid $1000 a month to work one hour a week. Other medical clinics in town lost employees to Alpine because they could not compete with its pay structure. The clinic also lost income because of an agreement she made with doctors to provide care to patients when they were admitted to a hospital.

With costs rising, Fairhurst submitted false claims to Medi-Cal. She forged Medi-Cal forms, claiming that patients had received care at the clinic, even though some patients had not been to it in years. It is estimated that two-thirds of the claims she submitted were fraudulent.

The scheme unraveled when a member of the clinic’s board of directors discovered that payment claims had been submitted for patients who had not been seen at the clinic. The board of directors hired an accounting firm to conduct an audit of the clinic’s finances. Fairhurst refused to provide any information to the firm and resigned in June 2008.

The audit uncovered further evidence of Fairhurst’s activities, including the use of a personal credit card that was linked to the clinic’s bank account. The clinic’s board of directors referred its findings to the Attorney General’s Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse for prosecution earlier this year.

If convicted, Fairhurst faces up to five years in prison.

To report fraud or abuse, call the Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse's hotline at (800) 722-0432.

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