Jefferson City doctor pleads guilty in medical payment case

A Jefferson City doctor is pleading guilty to lying about the extent of patients’ conditions to make sure the costs were covered by insurance companies.

Randall Meyer, 60, waived his right to a grand jury last Friday. He has to give up his medical license two weeks before he is sentenced. His sentencing hearing has not been set.

Meyer was a physician, surgeon and partner at Central Missouri Cardiology, P.C., a cardiology group in Jefferson City. Investigators claimed he exaggerated the amount blood vessels were blocked for 14 patients in 2010. They think he claimed their arteries were narrowed by 70 percent or greater, to ensure the costs for of the stents would be covered by their health benefit programs.

Meyer has to pay back $76,369, which is the estimated loss suffered by the private insurers. The government can also go after civil damages filed with federal agencies under the False Claims Act.