Attorney General Ken Paxton's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit has successfully secured a 10-year federal prison sentence and a restitution payment of $26,622,522 for Dr. David M. Young. The Fredericksburg, Texas doctor was sentenced for his involvement in a scheme that defrauded government health care programs by prescribing durable medical equipment and genetic tests without patient consultations.
Dr. Young admitted to signing thousands of fraudulent prescriptions and medical records for unnecessary orthotic braces and cancer genetic testing. These prescriptions affected more than 13,000 Medicare beneficiaries, many of whom he neither spoke to nor examined. Undercover agents posing as patients were also involved in the investigation, which revealed that over $70 million had been fraudulently billed to healthcare programs.
"Medicaid fraud steals hundreds of millions from the taxpayers, and I will relentlessly pursue those who exploit these programs," stated Attorney General Paxton. "This doctor will pay more than $26 million in restitution and spend 10 years in jail for his actions. In the past four years my office has recovered nearly $1 billion for Texas taxpayers and I will continue to do everything in my power to hold wrongdoers accountable."
The investigation was conducted by Sergeant Michelle Killinger, Investigative Auditor Jennifer Blakely, and Captain Justin Boyce of Attorney General Paxton’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, with assistance from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General. The DOJ Health Care Strike Force in Dallas prosecuted the case.
Since 2020, the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit has recovered over $990 million through settlements, judgments, and restitution on behalf of Texas taxpayers. The unit receives 75 percent of its funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under a grant totaling $22.7 million for fiscal year 2024; the remaining 25 percent is funded by the State of Texas.