In 2004 the Citizens Commission on Human Rights of St. Louis (CCHR STL) filed a formal complaint against St. Louis, Missouri psychiatrist Franco Sicuro, for fraud and abuse related to a patient’s alleged misdiagnosis and mistreatment lasting over a very painful fifteen months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sicuro headlined the news in 2020 when he was indicted<\/a> by the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office, Eastern District of Missouri, for $15 million in health care fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eventually Sicuro pleaded guilty<\/a> in 2022 to a felony conspiracy charge and admitted that Medicare, Medicaid and other insurers lost more than $3.8 million based on fraudulent reimbursement claims submitted by clinical laboratories that he owned. Sicuro has since satisfied the restitution owed, and agreed to forfeit $3.1 million in assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally in 2024 the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Missouri, reported that Sicuro’s co-defendant, Carlos Himpler, was sentenced<\/a> to 20 months in prison and fined $100,000 for submitting more than $3.8 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare, Medicaid and private health care benefit programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This kind of criminal fraud is rampant in the psychiatric industry. Experience has shown that there are many criminal mental health practitioners. If you become aware of such, file a fraud report here: https:\/\/www.cchr.org\/take-action\/report-psychiatric-abuse.html<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CCHR St. Louis was among the first to spot and make known this psychiatrist’s criminal behavior and thanks to its persistent education with health and regulatory agencies on the abuses of psychiatry justice was able to prevail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What is needed is legislation that provides not only more effective oversight but also stronger accountability measures: criminal and civil penalties, removal from CMS programs (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) and their funding, and hospital closure where systemic abuse is found. Only such a comprehensive solution can begin to thwart the level of abuse, fraud and malpractice<\/a> that is so widespread today in the for-profit mental health industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Contact your local, state and federal representatives and express your opinions about this. Find contact information for your Missouri legislators here: https:\/\/www.senate.mo.gov\/LegisLookup\/ZipLookup<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" CCHR St. Louis was among the first to spot and make known this psychiatrist’s criminal behavior. Continue reading