TOPEKA – Kansas health officials canceled a telemedicine doctor’s license after he was convicted of Medicare fraud.
The Kansas State Board of Healing Arts (KSHBA) issued a final order on Tuesday, September 17, in the matter of Rodney Sosa, a Texas chiropractor who practices telemedicine in Kansas. Sosa was sentenced to 46 months, or nearly four years, in prison in June 2023 after being convicted in a United States District Court in Dallas of one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and making substantially false statements.
According to court records with the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), Sosa was convicted on charges that he signed prescriptions and other Medicare-required documents for tests and medical devices that were not legitimately prescribed, unnecessary, not used, or were induced through illegal kickbacks and bribes.
Sosa and two other co-conspirators were charged with illegally submitting and caused to be submitted $1.4 million in false and fraudulent claims to federal healthcare programs such as Medicare for prescriptions for genetic tests and durable medical equipment. Medicare paid $574,000 for Sosa and his co-conspirators’ bogus and fraudulent claims.
Following Sosa’s conviction, the KSHBA ordered that his license to practice telemedicine in Kansas be terminated. This decision was taken because the board received no proof that Sosa would not constitute a threat to the public as a chiropractor practicing telemedicine in Kansas, and he has not been rehabilitated sufficiently to earn the public’s trust. All medical records kept by Sosa must be given over to another qualified practitioner of medicine and surgery or a records management facility.