O.C. doctor sentenced to 10 years for insurance fraud

13 july 2008--A 53-year-old Seal Beach doctor was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison today for performing scores of unnecessary "sweaty palm surgeries" and other procedures in a scheme that defrauded health care companies out of more than $9 million.
Dr. William Wilson Hampton had no comment as he appeared in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom before U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins, who called his actions a "crime of greed."
Collins ordered Hampton to surrender to prison authorities by Sept. 8.
Last November, a jury found Hampton guilty of one count of health care fraud. They acquitted him on another health care fraud count and deadlocked on nine other charges, which prosecutors subsequently dismissed.
Donald Etra, Hampton's attorney, indicated his client will appeal the guilty verdict.
Working at Bel Air Surgical Institute and several other medical clinics in Los Angeles and Orange counties, Hampton was paid thousands of dollars for 15-minute operations with no follow-up appointments.
Patients were paid up to $300 for colonoscopies and up to $1,200 for sweaty palm surgeries, prosecutors said.
Sweaty palm surgeries are typically performed to combat excessive perspiration on the hands and require incisions in the armpits, which carry the risk of puncturing one or both lungs, prosecutors said.
Hampton billed more than $9 million from insurance companies for performing more than 400 such sweaty palm surgeries, prosecutors allege.
Hampton, who usually made around $200,000 per year for his legitimate surgeries, extensively participated in the scheme for a number of years, prosecutors said. The unnecessary surgeries eventually comprised about 70 percent of Hampton's medical practice.
The patients were recruited by people who worked for marketers who were then paid by the surgery centers. In return, the patients received money or other benefits.
The patients, who were described as young, easily-led people in need of money and who later regretted what they had done, frequently underwent the surgeries with no consultation from Hampton.
The surgeon performed one pre-op consultation while the paid patient was being wheeled into a surgery room.
Hampton's victims included 66 different health insurance companies.
Hampton appeared on ABC's "Primetime Thursday" TV show when reporter John Quinones went undercover and told the surgeon that he'd been offered $800 to undergo the sweaty palm surgery and that he was going to be operated on for no reason other than the cash, court papers state.
At trial, Etra told the jury that his client submitted false insurance claims only because he believed his patients. He also said the government's case was based on half-truths and unreliable witnesses.
Another surgeon involved in the scheme, Dr. Mamdouh Bahna, 61, pleaded guilty to health care fraud last year. Collins sentenced him to nearly five years' imprisonment. Bahna is incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution in Terminal Island.