Michigan man charged with billing Medicare for psychotherapy never provided; women less likely than men to receive intensive treatment; gambling disorder emergency visits nearly doubled in Ontario — Morning Medical Update

Michigan man charged with billing Medicare for psychotherapy never provided

Prosecutors allege Medicare was billed for patients who were hospitalized or had died.

Emory Matthews, 62, of Farmington Hills, Michigan, was arrested Sept. 14 on health care fraud charges, the U.S. Department of Justice announced. Prosecutors allege Matthews, an administrator at his wife's Detroit adult day care center, helped submit more than $4.75 million in false Medicare claims for psychotherapy from January 2020 through June 2025.

Matthews had been excluded from billing Medicare after a prior conviction for soliciting and receiving kickbacks and bribes tied to the center. The indictment alleges the couple concealed that exclusion and submitted claims under former employees' names. His wife, Yolanda Matthews, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud July 27. If convicted, Matthews faces up to 10 years in prison on each count.

Women less likely than men to receive intensive treatment, review finds

Twenty-six of the 41 studies reviewed were conducted in the U.S.

Women were less likely than clinically similar men to receive invasive or intensive treatment, according to a scoping review published Sept. 16 in PLOS One. Of 38 studies reviewing patient records, 33 found statistically significant differences in treatment by sex. In cardiovascular care, the most-studied area, women were more often managed with medication than with procedures such as bypass surgery or ablation.

Few studies cited sex-specific treatment guidelines, and the authors could not determine whether the gaps reflect clinical judgment, patient choice or inequitable care. "For clinicians, the findings are a prompt to check whether treatment is being offered on clinical grounds rather than assumption," said co-lead author Andrew O'Malley, Ph.D., of Scotland's University of St Andrews.

Emergency visits for gambling disorder nearly doubled after Ontario expanded online betting

More than 70% of the visits involved another mental health condition or heavy substance use.

Ontario's emergency department (ED) visits for gambling disorder were 99% higher by mid-2025 than projected without the province's expansion into single-event sports betting and privately operated online gambling, according to a study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Among males ages 10 to 29, rates ran 154% above projections; females saw no change. Such visits were rare: 952 in 14 years.

Sports betting is legal in 39 U.S. states and Washington, D.C., according to the American Gaming Association. Most people with gambling problems never seek care, so the rise in ED visits "may be revealing much larger increases in gambling-related harm," said senior author Daniel Myran, M.D., of the University of Toronto. The findings show association, not causation.