Athens business owner charged with health care fraud

ATHENS, Ala. (WAFF) - A businessman has been charged with health care fraud as announced by United States Attorney Prim Escalona on Friday.

Joshua Creasy, 44, was charged with 15 counts of health care fraud. According to information filed in U.S. District Court, Creasy schemed to defraud insurers into paying for unnecessary hearing aids. Creasy operated One Love Hearing and provided hearing aids and other hearing solutions.

In some instances, insurance was billed for hearing aids for people who never visited One Love Hearing Concepts. Other times, insurance was billed for people that said they didn’t want hearing aids.

Creasy pled guilty to the charges. In the plea agreement, Creasy will pay forfeiture of $1,000,000 and pay $1,500,000 as restitution to victims.

The maximum penalty for health care fraud is 10 years in prison.