Benbrook doctor whose wife burned records in fireplace when subpoenas arrived is sentenced
A physician whose wife tried to incinerate records from his Fort Worth and Weatherford pain management clinics was sentenced on Thursday to 10 years in prison for his role in a $10 million billing fraud.
Mark Kuper, an osteopath and owner of the Texas Center for Orthopedic and Spinal Disorders, in September pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Fort Worth to conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud.
Kuper, 43, admitted that he conspired with his wife, Melissa Kuper, and Travis Couey, a physical therapist at the clinics, to defraud Medicare, Medicaid, and TRICARE, according to a stipulation of facts included in a factual resume filed in the case.
Mark Kuper fraudulently billed insurers for services, including physical therapy and psychotherapy, the clinics never rendered and required patients to attend bogus appointments in order to receive controlled substance prescriptions.
He gave his wife access to the secure device and code he used to sign controlled substance prescriptions, allowing her to improperly dispense pain medications on her own initiative.
Beyond the prison term, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor ordered Mark Kuper to serve a three-year period of supervised release and make, with his wife and Couey, restitution of $4,209,890.81. O’Connor recommended to the Bureau of Prisons that Kuper be allowed to participate in a residential drug treatment program.
In 2017, Mark Kuper and the clinics received subpoenas from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services inspector general and the Texas Attorney General’s Medicaid fraud unit, according to the indictment.
Melissa Kuper set fire to billing and medical records at the couple’s house in the 4900 block of Corriente Lane near Benbrook, according to the indictment. The fire spread from the outdoor fireplace to the Kupers’ $1.6 million mansion, which was destroyed. Firefighters said they found charred records in the fireplace, according to the indictment.
Melissa Kuper and Couey pleaded guilty in September to conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud. They were sentenced to prison terms of 18 months and 36 months.
Mark Kuper acknowledged that he submitted claims stating that his clinics had developed individualized physical therapy plans for each patient. The patients were actually meeting in groups with an athletic trainer who was not qualified to perform physical therapy, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas.
Kuper on occasion billed as though he had provided more than 100 hours of work in a single day, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. From 2014 to 2017, he submitted more than $10 million in claims to Medicaid, Medicare, and TRICARE.
Kuper and his clinic agreed to settle with an agreed judgment of $11,190,222 a False Claims Act lawsuit that the U.S. Attorney’s Office civil division filed. Kuper agreed to liquidate his real estate portfolio and other assets to satisfy the civil judgment. A whistleblower, Richard Brown, will receive 17% of the government’s recovery.
