Story Time | Louisiana | Medicare Fraud

Okay kids, gather around. Scharmaine Lawson Baker has a story to share about the day she stole one and a half million dollars from the U.S taxpayer. Baker, a published children’s author, was also a nurse practitioner and enrolled as a Medicare provider. She claimed to be an expert in Medicare regulations, even authoring publications on medical necessity and patient-provider relationships for nurse practitioners who were starting their own practice. But fraudsters can be wise in advice but lack the internal drive to follow it! Turns out Baker was stealing millions of dollars from the U.S. taxpayer in a Medicare health scheme.

From 2018 to 2019, Baker worked as an independent contractor for a company that claimed to provide telehealth services. But Baker signed hundreds of orders for medically unnecessary genetic cancer testing after only providing very brief phone calls, typically less than 60 seconds. And without conducting any physical exams, Baker falsely diagnosed the patients to justify the unnecessary tests. Such as diagnosing male patients with cervical cancer, which was obviously impossible for them to have! Baker never reviewed of followed up on any of the test results, including when the results showed that patients were genetically predisposed to certain cancers.

In total, Baker’s involvement allowed $12.1 million in fraudulent Medicare claims with the labs involved in the scheme receiving over $1.5 million in reimbursements for unnecessary testing. In exchange for signing these orders, Lawson Baker accepted kickbacks and bribes from the telehealth company – payments she then later failed to disclose in her bankruptcy petition.

On July 25, 2025, Baker was found guilty of Medicare fraud. by ordering medically unnecessary cancer genetic tests for hundreds of patients she never met or examined.

Excellent job by the Department of Health and Human Services in this case.

Today’s Fraud of The Day is based on article “Louisiana nurse practitioner convicted in $12M Medicare fraud over cancer tests” published by KTTN News on July 25, 2025.

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A federal jury convicted a New Orleans nurse practitioner Thursday for her role in a $12.1 million Medicare fraud scheme involving cancer genetic tests ordered for hundreds of patients she never met or examined, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. 

Scharmaine Lawson Baker, 58, was found guilty of six counts of health care fraud. According to the DOJ, Lawson Baker falsely diagnosed patients to justify unnecessary cancer genetic tests, including labeling male patients with cervical cancer. She did not review the test results, even when they showed gene mutations linked to increased cancer risk.