Amite mayor pays $270,000 to settle Medicare charges

• By BILL LODGE AND DEBRA LEMOINE
• Advocate staff writers
• Published: Jul 18, 2008 - Page: 1B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Amite Mayor Reginald E. “Reggie” Goldsby paid $270,000 to settle allegations he caused Medicare to pay more than $400,000 in improper claims, federal officials confirmed Thursday.

“He is alleged to have violated the False Claims Act,” U.S. Attorney David Dugas, of Baton Rouge, said in a written statement.

Dugas said federal investigators accused Goldsby of signing certificates of medical necessity and writing prescriptions for motorized wheelchairs for people whose medical conditions did not meet the Medicare requirements.

Goldsby, a family-medicine physician who has served 24 years as mayor, is seeking re-election Oct. 4.

He declined to comment and referred all questions to his Hammond attorney, Duncan S. Kemp III.

The agreement that settled the dispute was signed July 9 by Goldsby and includes the government’s allegation that he went to church health fairs at the request of a wheelchair supplier. That supplier is alleged to have paid Goldsby $300 to $500 per wheelchair prescription at those health fairs in 2003 and 2004.

“He had been asked to do this and did so as a charitable venture to help a group in the Tangipahoa and Kentwood area in connection to a church up there,” said Kemp, Goldsby’s attorney.

“There were some problems with the paperwork,” Kemp said. “It’s all taken care of and over with. We’re happy it turned out the way it did for us.”

Dugas would not comment on the possibility of government action against the wheelchair supplier.

“I can say that the civil settlement closes our investigation of Dr. Goldsby,” Dugas said. “I can’t go beyond that.”

If the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is required to return the $270,000 in some future bankruptcy proceeding involving Goldsby, additional action could be taken against the mayor, Dugas said.

Under such circumstances, the settlement agreement permits federal officials to initiate action against Goldsby for the full $405,000 that Medicare paid for the disputed wheelchairs, Dugas confirmed.

He also said the $270,000 settlement is in the best interest of taxpayers.