Hoshour

Ex-fugitive doctor pleads guilty in bill scam
Admission by former operator of addiction clinics is latest chapter in troubled personal, professional history.


By Vic Ryckaert
vic.ryckaert@indystar.com
May 14, 2005


An Indianapolis doctor pleaded guilty Friday to corrupt business influence and admitted he billed insurance companies for tests and treatments he never performed.

Dr. Thomas Hoshour's guilty plea is the latest chapter in a 16-year saga in which he rebuilt his reputation after spending time in federal prison, only to lose it again in a scam that prosecutors say bilked more than $200,000 from insurance companies. He became a fugitive after having been one of the city's most successful substance-abuse treatment counselors.

"He knew better," Deputy Prosecutor Rom Byron said Friday. "He risked it all on the backs of patients and addicts who were honestly and desperately seeking help."

Under a plea agreement, Hoshour, 60, faces up to six years in prison and must forfeit his medical license for 50 years. Superior Court Judge Robert Altice will sentence Hoshour on June 15.

A graduate of Shortridge High School, Hoshour earned a medical degree from the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine and practiced medicine in the 1980s from a small office on 38th Street.

In 1989, Hoshour was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit murder. He had been accused of providing a gun and a bomb to an informant for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in a plot to kill a family friend.

Hoshour blamed his problems on alcohol, and in prison he exercised and studied the effects of addiction on the brain. After his release, Indiana reinstated his medical license in 1992.

He opened his first Sober Life Alternatives clinic in 1998. The business grew to include clinics in Indianapolis, Greenfield, Anderson, Muncie, New Castle, Richmond, Noblesville and Avon.

He counted among his patients some of the state's elite and powerful, including Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay, who was treated for substance abuse in 1998.

In the spring of 2003, two undercover Indianapolis police officers posed as patients to conduct a sting operation. Prosecutors say Hoshour was ripping off insurance companies.

In July 2003, he was arrested at his Noblesville clinic.

Prosecutor Carl Brizzi said Hoshour racked up more than $200,000 in false claims, charging Anthem and Federated Mutual insurance companies for services that were unnecessary or never provided.

Byron said the crimes Hoshour committed contribute to the rise in health care costs.

Following his arrest, friends say, Hoshour returned to drinking. He failed to appear for a court hearing in November 2003.

Police found a suicide note, knife, divorce papers and empty vodka bottles in Hoshour's Cicero home. Rumors circulated that Hoshour was dead or had moved to Mexico.

Where Hoshour hid is still a mystery, but police say he spent time in Illinois and Florida. In February 2004, a disheveled Hoshour was arrested in the basement of a friend's Eastside home.

He has spent the past 15 months in the Marion County Jail, awaiting trial.

Hoshour, wearing a blue jail uniform that resembled the hospital scrubs he wore at his clinics, said little Friday in his Marion Superior Court plea hearing. His words were limited to answering questions from the judge. When asked if he had recently consumed alcohol or drugs, Hoshour smiled slightly and said: "No."

After the hearing, deputies whisked him back to the jail to await sentencing. Hoshour's lawyer, Dennis Zahn, refused to comment.