An Oak Park physician, Dr. William McMiller, was convicted of milking Medicaid out of a hefty $1.2 million after a Cook County judge laid down the law this past week. McMiller, 69, could now be staring down the barrel of up to 80 years behind bars, having been found guilty on multiple counts of theft and fraud.
Owner of the so-called Dr. Bill's Learning Center, where kids were supposedly getting tutored, and patients received clinical therapy and psychiatric services, McMiller, with his niece in tow, apparently lied their way to a fortune. Billing for services never rendered, this family duo made a business out of deception. Jonise Williams, 39, McMiller's billing manager and niece, had earlier pled guilty to vendor fraud and was let off the hook with a probation slap on the wrist, as discovered by the Chicago Sun-Times.
"Millions of Illinoisans – seniors, children, and families – rely on Medicaid to obtain their health care," Attorney General Kwame Raoul expressed his dismay in a statement outlining the gravity of the situation. "It is unconscionable a physician who is charged with providing care would take advantage of patients and the people of Illinois," he added, clearly floored by McMiller's disregard for professional ethics and the law.
As reported by FOX 32 Chicago, the unraveling of McMiller's scheme began with a raised eyebrow at the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services Office of the Inspector General. They passed the baton to the Illinois State Police Medicaid Fraud Control Unit after coming across McMiller's curious daily billing circus act. Special agent in charge with the Department of Health and Human Services, Mario M. Pinto, did not mince words when he said, “Physicians who defraud federal health care programs not only waste, valuable taxpayer dollars, but they also divert resources meant to pay for medically necessary care for eligible enrollees.”
While McMiller remains held at Cook County Jail, waiting to return to court on Feb. 29, the message is crystal clear: play fast and loose with taxpayer dollars, and the law will come knocking. It doesn't matter if you're disguised as a physician or a huckster – justice, it seems, is blind to professions but sees right through a scam.
