Crime & Courts

KS man forged doctor signature, got insurer to pay for fake liver transplant, AG says

A Kansas man told his insurance company that he got a second liver transplant two years after he received his first and convinced his carrier to pay a claim for it.

But that procedure never happened, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt says.

Now the man, 53-year-old Mychael Hauss of Wellington, will have to pay $31,755 in restitution over the fib after pleading guilty to insurance fraud in May.

In a Thursday news release, Schmidt said Hauss was sentenced Tuesday in Sumner County District Court for one count of insurance fraud and one count of forgery. The judge, William R. Mott, placed Hauss on supervised probation for two years and ordered he pay a $2,500 fine in addition to the thousands in restitution he owes the insurance company.

Schmidt said during an investigation, the Kansas Insurance Department determined that Hauss “had purchased a policy to cover other expenses which were covered by a supplemental insurance carrier” after he had a liver transplant in 2015.

Later, Hauss submitted a second claim with his supplemental insurance carrier “for another alleged liver transplant” two years later that never actually occurred but the insurance company paid for anyway, in part because he faked his physician’s signature, according to the news release.

Investigators found that Hauss “never actually received a second liver transplant and the claim was therefore determined to be false,” Schmidt said, adding that the investigation also determined that Hauss “had forged a doctor’s signature as part of the false second claim.”

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Amy Renee Leiker
The Wichita Eagle
Amy Renee Leiker has been reporting for The Wichita Eagle since 2010. She covers crime, courts and breaking news and updates the newspaper’s online databases. She’s a mom of three and loves to read in her non-work time. Reach her at 316-268-6644 or at aleiker@wichitaeagle.com.
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