Louisiana Nurse Practitioner Sentenced to 87 Months in Prison for $12M Medicare Fraud Scheme

A Louisiana nurse practitioner was sentenced to 87 months in federal prison for her role in a scheme that caused more than $12 million in false claims to be submitted to Medicare for medically unnecessary cancer genetic tests. Scharmaine Lawson Baker, 59, of Fulshear, Texas, was also ordered to pay $1,508,868 in restitution and will serve three years of supervised release following her prison term.

According to evidence presented at trial, Lawson Baker worked as an independent contractor for a telehealth company from October 2018 to October 2019. In that role, she signed hundreds of orders for cancer genetic tests after brief phone calls with patients that typically lasted less than 30 seconds—and without ever examining them. In one recorded call, a company operator told Lawson Baker she would be “rolling in money” by signing the orders, to which she replied, “Honey, I am not complaining.” The evidence also showed she ordered ovarian and cervical cancer tests for male patients, underscoring that she was acting as a rubber stamp rather than providing real medical care. Lawson Baker never reviewed the results of any tests she ordered, including when results showed patients actually had variants predisposing them to certain cancers. In exchange for signing these orders, she accepted kickbacks and bribes from the telehealth company—payments she later failed to disclose in her bankruptcy petition.

After a three-day jury trial in July 2025, a federal jury found Lawson Baker guilty of six counts of health care fraud. This case reflects the government’s aggressive pursuit of healthcare fraud, particularly schemes where medical professionals prioritize illegal kickbacks over patient welfare. The investigation was conducted by the HHS Office of Inspector General and the FBI.