Louisiana Nurse Practitioner Convicted of $12M Medicare Fraud Scheme

US Attorney's Office, July 24, 2025

A federal jury convicted a Louisiana nurse practitioner today for her role in an over $12.1 million health care fraud scheme to defraud Medicare by ordering medically unnecessary cancer genetic tests for hundreds of patients she never met or examined.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Scharmaine Lawson Baker, 58, of Richmond, Texas, served as a nurse practitioner and was an enrolled Medicare provider. She held herself out as an expert in Medicare regulations – authoring publications on medical necessity and patient-provider relationships – while actively violating those very standards.

“Scharmaine Lawson Baker shamelessly exploited her medical license and the trust of vulnerable patients to enrich herself through a multimillion-dollar genetic testing fraud,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “The defendant peddled false promises of free cancer screenings while pocketing kickbacks for medically unnecessary tests. The Criminal Division remains relentless in uncovering and prosecuting fraud against government programs and those who prey on victims for personal gain.”

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