Sleaziest of doctors gets 10 years in prison

Justice was finally given out which should be an example to other doctors who think that their medical license allows them to extort money from patients by concocting diseases and then recommend treatment for profit.  Here is such an example:

“Ophthalmologist David Ming Pon, MD, MPH, was sentenced last week in a federal district court in Jacksonville, Florida, to 10 years in prison for bilking Medicare out of nearly $10 million.

One could call it a light sentence. Federal prosecutors had sought at least 40 years in prison for the 59-year-old Dr Pon, not just on account of the dollars at stake, but also on account of what they described as “evil” treatment of his elderly patients.

Dr Pon, after all, had told some 600 patients that they had wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) when in fact they didn’t, and that they needed laser photocoagulation lest they go blind, according to prosecutors. To top off the fraud, he faked the treatments that he billed for”