(Salt Lake City, UT) - Cedar City optometrist Dr. David P. Eastman admitted to filing over $30,000 dollars worth of false medical claims to the Utah Medicaid Program. He pled guilty to a 2nd degree felony charge of submitting fraudulent claims when he appeared before Third District Court Judge Katie Bernard-Goodman, Monday, June 6, 2011.

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said, “We want to make it perfectly clear that doctors who defraud the Utah Medicaid program will be held accountable."

The plea agreement requires Dr. Eastman to reimburse $31,707 to the Utah Medicaid program on or before August 31st, 2011.

Assistant Utah Attorney General Robert C. Morton with the Medicaid Fraud Control unit said, "The evidence in this case showed that Dr. Eastman submitted claims for patients he never saw or treated. Felony charges are appropriate in this case because of the extent of the fraud committed.”

The fraud came to light when a concerned employee of a Cedar City clinic reported that a client received a notice from Medicaid reflecting payments for services from Dr. Eastman. The doctor had formerly rented space from the clinic but the client denied ever taking her children to be treated by Dr. Eastman.

Sentencing is scheduled for Monday, July 18th, 2011 at 1:00PM before Judge Bernard-Goodman. The Medicaid Fraud Control Unit in the Attorney General’s Office is a specialized unit that investigates and prosecutes fraud, waste and abuse within the Medicaid Program.