Tucker woman pleads guilty in medical scam

A woman who operated an alternative medicine clinic in Tucker pleaded guilty Tuesday to a health care scam involving hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

Chaunsay Beckwith, 46, entered her plea in federal court in Atlanta. Between 2003 and 2007, she ran International Alternative Medicine Inc. and provided the hyperbaric oxygen therapy to numerous patients.

None of the patients were diagnosed with medical conditions that allowed them to receive payments from their heath care programs for the treatment, U.S. Attorney David Nahmias said in a statement. Yet Beckwith, by submitting false diagnosis codes, cheated insurers out of $1.03 million for the hyperbaric chamber treatments, he said.

She is scheduled to be sentenced June 18.