By Jon King / jking@whmi.com


A former Fenton Township physician has been sentenced on federal health care kickback charges.

April Tyler was charged in 2018 in U.S. District Court in Detroit with 18 counts of conspiracy and health care fraud, with seven additional charges added the following year. However, she later pleaded guilty to a single charge of violating a federal Anti-Kickback Statute, in exchange for the other counts being dropped.

In court on Tuesday, Tyler was sentenced to 3 years of probation with six months of home confinement. Tyler was an osteopathic physician who owned and operated Fenton Creative Healthcare on North Long Lake Road. Authorities say that she and two co-defendants, Patrick Wittbrodt and Jeffrey Fillmore, executed a scheme to defraud Medicare and other health insurers by submitting or causing others to submit false claims for prescription pain creams, scar creams, pain patches and vitamins authorized by Tyler, who previously admitted to overbilling Blue Cross/Blue Shield by $500,000.

In the sentencing memo, prosecutors said that her record “reflects that she has engaged in healthcare fraud, conduct related to health care fraud, and prescription drug diversion over a long period of career.” Tyler also agreed to not renew her medical license.

Meanwhile, both Fillmore and Wittbrodt will be sentenced next month for their roles in the scheme, after both previously entered a guilty plea to a single count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud.