St. Louis, MO – Benjamin David Danneman, 37, of Eureka, pled guilty on March 13, 2019 to federal charges of healthcare fraud, social security fraud and aggravated identity fraud, the U.S. Department of Justice announced. He appeared in federal court before U.S. District Judge Ronnie White who accepted his guilty plea and set sentencing for June 12, 2019.
According to court documents, Danneman was not a nurse, but used the name and nursing license number of an actual licensed registered nurse to obtain work in the St. Louis area at Alexian Brothers Sherbrooke Village, the Rehabilitation Institute of St. Louis, and Des Peres Healthcare. Danneman was hired by Des Peres as the assistant director of nursing at the Quarters of Des Peres at an annual salary of $68,000.
At these health care facilities, he was responsible for the day to day care of patients needing skilled nursing care. Further, according to court documents, during 2017 and 2018 in at least six states, Danneman used the names, Social Security account numbers, nursing license numbers, and other personal identifying information of several persons to rent apartments and to obtain a driver’s license, loans, credit cards, and insurance.
“Ensuring that our beneficiaries are provided quality care by appropriately licensed providers is a top priority of our office,” said Steven Hanson, Special Agent in Charge of the Kansas City Region of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General. “Individuals who steal the identity of licensed providers and then seek to provide services to Medicare beneficiaries will be aggressively investigated by our office.”