MOHAVE COUNTY – Five people employed at the Kokopelli Eye Institute in Kingman have been indicted along with the doctor who operates the business that also has branches in Prescott, Prescott Valley, Peoria, Wickenburg, Surprise, Glendale and Fountain Hills. Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich early this month announced the indictment of Dr. Michael Lee Ham in an alleged fraud and billing scandal.
Brnovich has subsequently announced the indictment of 44 employees who worked at the various Kokopelli Eye Institutes. The five who worked at the Kingman business who’ve been indicted include Monica Zavala, Donalda “Sue” Sticka, Amber Havenner, Sarah Morgan and Miranda Guffey Kendall.
“Many defendants are charged with Conspiracy and with Fraudulent Schemes and Artifaces, while others also face charges of Illegally Conducting an Enterprise, Participating in a Criminal Syndicate and Theft,” a news release stated. “It is alleged the additional defendants assisted Dr. Ham in a variety of ways to falsify patients’ medical records for the purpose of inducing government agencies and third-party insurers to pay for cataract and other eye surgeries on patients of Kokopelli Eye Care from 2009 through the Fall of 2018. It is possible some patients had cataract surgeries that were not medically necessary.”
Brnovich alleged that the scheme collected hundreds of thousands of dollars over a nine-year period by defrauding Medicare, the United States Department of Veterans’ Affairs, the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System and private health insurers.
- Dave Hawkins
In 2017, (January and March), I had cataract surgery on both eyes, one at a time.. I am thankful for the sight; that I have; but still am bothered with uncomfortable eyes (dry eyes, and a droopy eyelid). When I ordered my glasses around November 1 of 2017, they came back; but the girl who ordered the glasses, told me that she had made a mistake, so needed to reorder them. I never took them out of the office.. The second pair came back a few days later (Nov5). I only took one pair out of the office. I found the first pair on the Medicare site, (the ones for Nov1,) which apparently were returned. Eventually in 2018, I finally got Medicare to pay Kokepelli for the glasses. When I contacted Medicare; they said the reason that they had not paid them, before, was they thought the eye clinic was not on Medicare. I told them it was listed under Kokepelli, and the doctor was being paid, so the glasses department, should also be paid. I have been dunned repeatedly to pay for the glasses, even after that payment from medicare went through. Medicare pays for the first set of glasses after cataract surgery.