Ashland doctor convicted of performing unneeded heart procedures

A well-known Ashland heart doctor has been convicted of fraud in a case in which he was accused of performing needless procedures to get payments from Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers.

A jury convicted Richard E. Paulus on Thursday.

Paulus was convicted of placing stents in patients whose heart conditions did not justify the procedures and of performing unnecessary diagnostic heart catheterizations, U.S Attorney Kerry B. Harvey said in a news release.

An indictment charged that Paulus submitted claims for hundreds of medically unnecessary heart procedures during a five-year period from 2008 to 2013, but not all those cases were covered in the charges.

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