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   Department of Justice   
   U.S. Attorney’s Office   
   Western District of Louisiana   
   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   
   Friday, February 10, 2017   
      
   Federal jury finds Shreveport mental health facility administrator guilty of   
   kickback scheme   
      
   SHREVEPORT, La. – United States Attorney Stephanie A. Finley announced that   
   a federal jury found a former Shreveport mental health facility administrator   
   guilty Thursday of taking part in a kickback scheme.   
      
   Tom McCardell, 64, of Lafayette, La., was found guilty of 14 counts of paying   
   illegal kickbacks. After the conclusion of the four-day trial, the jury   
   deliberated approximately four hours before delivering the guilty verdict.    
   United States District Judge    
   Elizabeth E. Foote presided over the trial. According to the evidence   
   presented, from July of 2011 to November 2012, McCardell operated a kickback   
   scheme while he was administrator of Physicians Behavior Hospital (PBH) in   
   Shreveport. He paid kickbacks to    
   an Alabama resident, who had no medical training or background, to recruit and   
   refer patients to PBH for psychiatric and substance abuse treatment. The   
   hospital would then purchase bus tickets for the patients to travel to PBH in   
   Shreveport. Many of the    
   patients traveled unattended without escort. To avoid detection and suspicion,   
   the defendant arranged for the kickbacks to be issued in the name of the   
   patient recruiter’s son. The defendant also ordered PBH personnel to create   
   an “employee file”    
   in the name of the recruiter’s son in order to provide cover for the illegal   
   kickback arrangement between the defendant and the recruiter. During the   
   scheme, McCardell caused the hospital to pay the recruiter’s son checks   
   totaling $41,000 to which he    
   was not entitled. As a result of the illegal kickback scheme, the hospital   
   billed more than $6.7 million dollars to Medicare and was paid more than $1.2   
   million dollars.   
      
   McCardell faces up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release   
   and $250,000 fine for each count.   
      
   The Health and Human Services-Office of Inspector General and the FBI   
   investigated the case.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Earl M. Campbell and Tennille   
   M. Gilreath are prosecuting the case.   
      
   USAO - Louisiana, Western   
   Topic:    
   Financial Fraud   
   Updated February 10, 2017   
      
      
   https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdla/pr/federal-jury-finds-shrevepo   
   t-mental-health-facility-administrator-guilty-kickback   
      
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