An Anchorage doctor and her husband pled guilty on Nov. 18 to executing a decades-long $12.5 million health care fraud scheme and evading over $4 million in taxes on the profits.

According to court documents, Dr. Claribel Tan, 61, and her husband, Daniel Tan, 70, operated a rheumatology clinic in Anchorage that specialized in treating autoimmune and musculoskeletal diseases with injectable medications.

“Beginning in 2009, Dr. Tan routinely and surreptitiously underdosed patients, injected them with free samples or a different medication than prescribed, injected them with expired medication, and/or injected them with medications purchased by other patients,” the Alaska U.S. Attorney’s Office explained. “The Tans then knowingly billed insurance plans as if Dr. Tan had provided each patient a full and proper injection.”

The Tans claimed to have administered 4,829 units of medications to patients, and billed the insurance plans for that amount, despite only purchasing 369 units.

Mr. Tan helped execute the scheme by creating and submitting fraudulent insurance claims and ordering insufficient medication for the clinic. The Tans also made false statements about the length of Dr. Tan’s office visits with her patients and submitted fraudulent claims to insurance plans for services that she never provided. The Tans’ fraud scheme created significant health risks to the patients and caused a loss of approximately $12.5 million to more than 10 insurance plans.

The Tans also submitted false tax records to conceal the scheme. Knowing that the clinic had not purchased the quantity of medications that they billed insurance plans for, the Tans fraudulently overstated the clinic’s expenses on tax returns. This resulted in a loss of approximately $4.2 million to the IRS.

In 2024 and 2025, the U.S. Attorney’s Office seized approximately $10.5 million in health care fraud proceeds from the Tans. As part of their plea agreements, they agreed to forfeit those funds to the U.S. and pay an additional $6.3 million towards their expected restitution judgment. They also agreed to pay an additional $1.85 million to settle civil claims. Dr. Tan has also surrendered her medical license, which was suspended by the Alaska State Medical Board in August 2024, as she was deemed a “clear and immediate danger to the public health and safety.”

The Tans face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for health care fraud and five years in prison for tax fraud.

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