A federal judge has taken the unusual step of tossing out a jury’s conviction of a prominent Maryland doctor for submitting millions of dollars in fraudulent insurance claims for COVID-19 tests.

In a detailed, 90-page ruling, James K. Bredar, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for Maryland, said the government did not meet the bar to convict Dr. Ron Elfenbein, an Arnold emergency room doctor who was charged with submitting $15 million in fraudulent tests at urgent care centers he operated.

He was among several people charged by the U.S. Department of Justice with fraud during the coronavirus pandemic, but the first to be convicted of testing-related fraud at trial.

Bredar noted that the move was rare but said the government didn’t present enough evidence to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that Elfenbein, an early proponent of testing for the deadly infection, was improperly “upcoding” those tests and billing Medicare and other insurers for reimbursement he wasn’t due.

[Interesting. ~ Beege]