North Texas doctor gets 35 years in prison for $375M medical fraud

DALLAS (AP) — A 60-year-old Dallas-area doctor has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for helping defraud Medicare and Medicaid out of almost $375 million.

A federal judge also ordered Dr. Jacques Roy on Wednesday to pay more than $268 million in restitution. A jury in April 2016 convicted the Rockwall physician of nine of 10 counts of defrauding a health care benefit program.

Roy owned Medistat Group Associates in the Dallas suburb of DeSoto.

Authorities say Roy and six co-defendants certified 11,000 Medicare beneficiaries through more than 500 home health providers between January 2006 and November 2011. Those numbers would have made Roy’s Medicare practice the busiest in the country.