Slidell Doctor Charged with Health Care Fraud
US Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Louisiana, March 11, 2025
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – Acting United States Attorney Michael M. Simpson announced that ROBERT TASSIN, M.D. (“TASSIN”), age 64, of Slidell, Louisiana, was charged March 10, 2025 with conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1347 and 1349, in connection with a scheme to bill Medicare for medically unnecessary cancer genetic (“CGx”) tests.
According to the bill of information, TASSIN worked as an independent contractor for several purported telemedicine companies. From approximately February through September of 2019, TASSIN, through the purported telemedicine companies, allegedly signed doctors’ orders for CGx tests for Medicare beneficiaries he never saw, spoke to, or otherwise treated. As a result, it is alleged that TASSIN‘s orders resulted in over $6.6 million in false and fraudulent claims submitted to Medicare, of which Medicare reimbursed over $2 million. To conceal and perpetuate the fraud, TASSIN allegedly made several false and fraudulent statements in support of the orders he submitted, including falsely certifying in medical records that the CGx tests were medically necessary for the patients’ treatment. In exchange for electronically reviewing patient charts and ordering CGx tests, it is alleged that TASSIN was paid a set fee per doctor’s order, typically $30, totaling $106,757.
Acting U.S. Attorney Simpson reiterated that the bill of information is merely a charge and that the guilt of the defendant must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
If convicted, TASSIN faces up to ten years in prison, up to three years of supervised release, a fine of up to $250,000, and a mandatory $100 special assessment fee.
Acting U.S. Attorney Simpson praised the work of the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General. Trial Attorney Kelly Walters of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas Moses, Healthcare Fraud Coordinator for the Eastern District of Louisiana, are prosecuting the case.
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