Illinois man steals friend’s identity for bypass surgery
Patient Safety Monitor Alert
August 27, 2008
A man who claimed to be his mentally-disabled friend had bypass surgery on his heart in 2007, reports The Chicago Tribune. John Parsons stole the identity of his friend Phillip Johnson to get the surgery because he could bill it to Johnson's Medicare account and Parsons felt he needed the surgery to survive. The surgery took place at Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH) in Chicago and authorities there don't quite know how the surgery took place.
Parsons admitted stealing Johnson's identity. Johnson discovered his identity had been stolen after he started receiving bills for a surgery that he did not have. NMH is covering the $350,000 in fees that Parsons racked up. Parsons has been charged with two accounts of aggravated financial theft.
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