A Louisiana nurse practitioner has been sentenced to 87 months in prison after a federal jury found she triggered more than $12.1 million in false Medicare claims by ordering medically unnecessary cancer genetic tests and taking kickbacks tied to those orders.

The sentence also includes three years of supervised release and an order to pay $1,508,868.25 in restitution. Prosecutors say the scheme involved costly genetic tests billed to Medicare that were not medically necessary, and that the ordered testing was driven by payments from a telehealth operation rather than patient care.

Scharmaine Lawson Baker, 59, of Fulshear, Texas, is a licensed nurse practitioner and former Medicare provider who worked as an independent contractor from October 2018 to October 2019. During that period she allegedly signed hundreds of test orders after extremely brief phone calls with patients, often calls lasting less than 30 seconds and without any physical exam or meaningful medical evaluation.

Evidence introduced at trial included recorded conversations with staff at the telehealth company. In one exchange a phone operator told Lawson Baker she would be “rolling in money” by signing the orders, and Lawson Baker responded with “Honey, I am not complaining.” Those recordings helped prosecutors build a picture of a transaction-driven practice rather than legitimate clinical decision making.

Investigators presented proof that Lawson Baker ordered ovarian and cervical cancer tests for male patients, which the government said showed she was acting as a rubber stamp to secure payments. Trial testimony and documents also showed she did not review test results, even when they identified variants that could predispose patients to cancer.

The laboratories that processed the unnecessary tests were reimbursed by Medicare for more than $1.5 million tied to the orders Lawson Baker signed. Prosecutors say she accepted tens of thousands of dollars in kickbacks and bribes from the telehealth company in exchange for placing those orders, and that she failed to disclose those payments in a later bankruptcy filing.

After a three-day jury trial in July 2025, Lawson Baker was convicted on six counts of health care fraud. The case was investigated by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General and the FBI New Orleans Field Office, and it was prosecuted by attorneys from the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

The Justice Department named the officials who announced the case, including Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the National Fraud Enforcement Division and U.S. Attorney David I. Courcelle for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Special Agent in Charge Jason E. Meadows of HHS-OIG and Special Agent in Charge Jonathan Tapp of the FBI New Orleans Field Office also were listed as part of the announcement.

Trial attorneys on the case included Samantha E. Usher and Gary A. Crosby II from the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas D. Moses handling the matter for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Trial Attorney Kelly Z. Walters of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section assisted in the prosecution.

The Department of Justice has highlighted this prosecution as part of broader efforts to combat fraud against federal benefit programs. The Justice Department’s Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program, the department says, has charged more than 6,200 defendants who collectively billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $45 billion since 2007.

Federal enforcement efforts aim to hold providers and companies accountable when billing patterns and payment relationships indicate abuse rather than legitimate medical care. Prosecutors and investigators emphasized that schemes involving kickbacks, sham telehealth operations, and rubber-stamp ordering risk serious criminal penalties when they harm Medicare and patients.

The case underscores how brief, checklist-driven telehealth encounters tied to referral payments can lead to widespread abuse of reimbursement systems. Officials involved in the prosecution framed the conviction as an example of the department’s focus on rooting out fraud that drains taxpayer-funded programs and endangers the integrity of health care services.

Law enforcement action included seizure of records and financial evidence showing the flow of funds between the telehealth operation, laboratories, and the provider who placed the test orders. The restitution figure reflects amounts traced to improper reimbursements from Medicare that prosecutors attributed to Lawson Baker’s conduct.