Former Lincoln County commissioner sentenced in insurance fraud case

A former Lincoln County commissioner was sentenced Friday to one-to-four years in prison for defrauding insurance companies.

Adam Katschke, 44, previously pleaded guilty to felony insurance and Medicaid fraud in the case.

Authorities said Katschke, the head pharmacist and owner of Meadow Valley Pharmacy in Caliente, defrauded insurance companies from 2013 to 2015 by billing for large amounts of pharmaceutical prescriptions that were rarely provided as billed to the patients or prescribed by a physician.

Caliente is about 150 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

State Attorney General Adam Laxalt’s office announced the sentence Friday. The sentencing, by Seventh Judicial District Court Judge Gary Fairman, also ordered Katschke to pay $1.5 million in restitution.

“The defendant stole a million and a half dollars from taxpayers through Medicaid, a program designed to provide care for those in need, not line the pockets of fraudsters,” Laxalt said in a statement.

Laxalt said the restitution money would go to the insurance companies Katschke defrauded.

Katschke ran unopposed and retained his seat on the Lincoln County Commission in November. Lincoln County Commission Chairman Kevin Phillips told the Lincoln County Record in November that Katschke would have to resign after his sentencing. He was first elected to the commission in 2012.

Contact Wesley Juhl at wjuhl@reviewjournal.com and 702-383-0391. Follow @WesJuhl on Twitter.