Daniel Ramiro Canchola, a 54-year-old resident of Flower Mound, Texas, has been sentenced to over ten years in federal prison. He is also required to pay more than $34 million in restitution due to his involvement in a $54 million healthcare fraud scheme. This case was brought to light by Attorney General Ken Paxton’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.
Attorney General Paxton emphasized the impact of such fraudulent activities on public trust and taxpayer resources. “Fraud schemes like this erode trust in our health care system and exploit hard-earned taxpayer dollars,” he stated. “We will pursue and bring to justice anyone who undermines public programs meant to help Texans.”
The fraudulent activities took place between August 2018 and April 2019. During this period, Dr. Canchola accepted illegal kickbacks for electronically signing authorizations for durable medical equipment (DME) and cancer genomic testing for patients he had never met. These authorizations facilitated over $54 million in false claims, often obtained through telemarketing campaigns and health fairs that misled government healthcare beneficiaries into accepting unnecessary tests and equipment.
The investigation was conducted by Sergeant Michelle Killinger, Captain Justin Boyce, and Investigative Auditor Jennifer Pernell-Blakely from Attorney General Paxton’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, with assistance from HHS-OIG. The prosecution was handled by the DOJ Health Care Fraud Strike Force.
Since 2021, the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit has recovered more than $612 million through settlements, judgments, and restitution for Texas taxpayers. The unit receives 75 percent of its funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under a grant totaling $20,944,200 for fiscal year 2023; the remaining 25 percent is funded by the State of Texas at $6,981,395. Over the past three years, every dollar of state funding has resulted in more than $49 being recovered for taxpayers.