Health security

Prosecutors say at least a dozen fake doctors performed botched surgeries on patients in elaborate $150M fraud scheme that spanned a decade

The patient was unconscious and ready for surgery, but the doctor was not in.

Instead of the Stanford- and Harvard-trained orthopedic surgeon who was supposed to perform the operation, the patient got a physician assistant who would do the cutting while the doctor and other colleagues schemed nearby about ways to cover up a massive medical insurance fraud, Los Angeles county prosecutors said.

It happened hundreds of times in an elaborate $150 million scheme that spanned a decade and led to unnecessary and scarring surgeries for unwitting patients, prosecutors said as they opposed bail reductions Friday for some of the 13 defendants who have pleaded not guilty to dozens of charges.

The indictments 'paint a clear picture of a sophisticated and savvy group of criminal conspirators who placed profits above the health and welfare of the thousands of patients they purported to treat,' Deputy District Attorney Catherine Chon said in court papers filed Thursday.