Cozby-Germany Hospital in Grand Saline was closed last year amid a regulatory safety crackdown. Insurance billings at the hospital were allegedly fraudulent.
A federal grand jury has handed down additional charges against Dr. Tariq Mahmood, whose rural hospital chain collapsed last year amid reports of reckless care and alleged fraud.
The Dallas businessman now faces seven counts of aggravated identity theft, according to papers filed in U.S.district court in Tyler.
Those come on top of eight counts of healthcare billing fraud brought last year. Mahmood has pleaded not guilty to both sets of charges.
The new indictment doesn’t provide details of the alleged theft. It only says “Mahmood, aided and abetted by others both known and unknown to the grand jury” unlawfully used the names of Medicare beneficiaries in a conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
Dr. Tariq Mahmood is under indictment for alleged health care fraud and identity theft
The U.S. Department of Justice often finds that identity theft underlies Medicare or Medicaid billing fraud schemes. Other cases have involved submitting names of patients in claims for procedures that were never performed.
