An Atlanta doctor who contended he was being prosecuted on political grounds because he performed abortions is headed to prison for Medicaid fraud.
On Friday, a judge sentenced Tyrone Cecil Malloy to four years in prison and six years on probation. After a two-week trial, a DeKalb County jury had found Malloy guilty of two counts of fraud.
The state Attorney General’s Office, which prosecuted the case, said Malloy fraudulently billed Georgia Medicaid for more than $386,000.
Malloy, 63, was medical director of the Atlanta SurgiCenter, where he has provided abortion services for two decades. His primary practice was in Decatur and he ran another clinic in College Park.
Last year, Malloy said he was being targeted because of a political agenda.
“This case has nothing to do with Medicaid, fraud or deceit,” Malloy wrote in an email to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It is about abortions — the most politically polarizing hot area facing our society and politicians especially.”
Malloy’s case dates to 2010, when the state Department of Community Health suspended his Medicaid reimbursements for illegally billing Medicaid for services related to abortions. Malloy appealed to a state administrative law judge, who ruled in the doctor’s favor, saying the evidence did not support a determination of fraud or misrepresentation. The suspended Medicaid funds were released to Malloy in April 2011.
But the state Attorney General’s Office kept pursuing the case and obtained an indictment against Malloy later that year. On Friday, the DeKalb jury found Malloy had indeed committed fraud.
In a statement, the Attorney General’s Office noted that federal funds cannot be used to pay for abortions and services associated with the procedures, except in circumstances involving rape, incest and when continuing the pregnancy would endanger the mother’s life. Georgia’s Medicaid program is supported by state and federal tax dollars.
Malloy, the Attorney General’s Office said, defrauded Medicaid by billing for office visits associated with abortions and for ultrasound procedures that were never performed.
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