Physician at Gurnee pain clinic sentenced to six months for health care fraud

A doctor working out of a pain clinic in Gurnee has been sentenced to six months in federal prison for prescribing opioids to patients without conducting an exam and then billing Medicare, officials announced Monday.

Eliza Diaconescu, 74, of Lake Forest, pleaded guilty earlier this year to health care fraud, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney's Office for Northern District of Illinois. In addition to the prison term, her sentence requires she pay Medicare $84,031 in restitution.

In Diaconescu's plea agreement, she admitted to pre-signing prescriptions for hydrocodone, oxycodone, and fentanyl for patients between 2016 and 2021 so patients could be provided with the medication when Diaconescu was not present, the release stated.

Both Diaconescu and other employees of the clinic created false paperwork stating Diaconescu had conducted face-to-face exams with each of the patients receiving the prescriptions, according to the news release. Further investigation has proved that none of these in-person meetings ever occurred.