The Votes Are In!
2024 Readers' Choice is back, bigger and better than ever!
View Winners → Crime Oct 15, 2022
| Photo courtesy of Nick Youngson/Picpedia.org (CC BY-SA 3.0)
by
share with
A former spa owner from Sherman Oaks was sentenced Friday to six years in prison for running a health care fraud scheme in which millions of dollars in bogus claims were submitted to insurance companies.
Roshanak “Roxanne” Khadem, 55, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson, who also ordered her to pay more than $1.2 million in restitution and a $30,000 fine, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
She previously pleaded guilty in Los Angeles federal court to one count each of health care fraud and tax evasion. She and four others — including a former fraud investigator at Anthem Blue Cross — were charged in 2018 in a multiyear conspiracy to commit health care fraud against at least eight companies.
Khadem owned and operated R&R Med Spa, located in Valley Village until early 2016, and its successor company, Nu-Me Aesthetic and Anti-Aging Center, which operated in Woodland Hills.
She and others induced patients to visit the clinics to receive “free” cosmetic procedures, including facials, laser hair removal and Botox injections which were not covered by insurance.
The conspirators obtained insurance information from patients, using it to bill for unnecessary medical services or for services that were never provided.
Khadem and her associates calculated a “credit” that patients could use to receive the “free” or discounted cosmetic procedures.
During the course of the scheme, Khadem and other defendants submitted at least $20 million in claims to Anthem and other insurance companies, which paid about $8 million on those claims, according to the indictment.
Gary Jizmejian, 48, of Santa Clarita, a former senior investigator at the Anthem Special Investigations Unit, the anti-fraud unit within Anthem that is responsible for investigating health care fraud committed against the insurance company, pleaded guilty to using his cell phone to send text messages to co-defendants as part of the commercial bribery scheme. He is serving an 18-month prison sentence.
The remaining three defendants also pleaded guilty.
The scheme defrauded, among other entities, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Pacific Maritime Association Benefit Plan, which is the health benefit plan that covers longshore workers in Southern California and their dependents, prosecutors said. Another victim was the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, which provides health insurance for federal employees.
