Dr. Eliza Diaconescu Sentenced to 6 Months for Pre-Signed Opioid Prescriptions and Billing Medicare for Exams That Never Happened

Case from 2022–2023 (U.S. Attorney's Office release: July 15, 2022; later developments are from court records and other sources cited below). Published on Scammers.com Oct. 16, 2026; case status is current as of that date.

Dr. Eliza Diaconescu of Lake Forest, Illinois, was sentenced July 12, 2023, to six months in federal prison and ordered to pay $84,031 in restitution to Medicare. She pre-signed opioid prescriptions at her Gurnee pain clinic and billed Medicare for exams that never took place, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois [2]. Diaconescu, who was 74 at sentencing, pleaded guilty in 2023 to one count of health care fraud before U.S. District Judge Steven C. Seeger. The written judgment was entered July 13, 2023 [4].

How the scheme worked

According to the charge filed July 14, 2022 [1] and Diaconescu's plea agreement as described by prosecutors [2]:

1. Pre-signed prescriptions. From 2016 to 2021, Diaconescu pre-signed prescriptions for hydrocodone, oxycodone and fentanyl so that patients at her Gurnee pain clinic could get them when she wasn't there.
2. No exam. Patients picked up the prescriptions from other clinic workers without seeing Diaconescu.
3. Paper trail. Diaconescu and others at the clinic created false records showing face-to-face exams that never happened.
4. Billing Medicare. She then billed Medicare for those exams, knowing they had not occurred.

"All of the money paid by Medicare should have gone towards providing medical services to beneficiaries," Assistant U.S. Attorney Jared Hasten wrote in the government's sentencing memorandum, as quoted by the DEA [2].

License action

After the conviction, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation indefinitely suspended Diaconescu's physician and surgeon license, Lake and McHenry County Scanner reported [3]. The outlet said IDFPR records show she had been fined and put on probation in March 2018 for failing to properly prescribe controlled substances. Her license was then suspended for at least 12 months in July 2021 for violating that probation.

The person sentenced

Eliza Diaconescu, 74 at sentencing, Lake Forest, Ill. [1] [2]

• Charge: one count of health care fraud, filed by criminal information on July 14, 2022. Case No. 1:22-cr-00353 (N.D. Ill.) [4].
• Plea: guilty (2023).
• Sentence: 6 months in federal prison and $84,031 in restitution to Medicare, imposed July 12, 2023.
• Investigation: the DEA, HHS-OIG, the Department of Labor OIG and the FBI, through the U.S. Attorney's Office's Opioid Task Force.

Red flags

• Getting controlled-substance prescriptions with no visit with the prescriber, especially prescriptions handed out by front-desk staff.
• Medicare statements listing office visits you didn't have.
• A clinic that doesn't seem to care whether the doctor is ever there.

What to do

1. Read your Medicare Summary Notice or check medicare.gov for services you didn't receive.
2. Report suspected Medicare fraud to HHS-OIG at oig.hhs.gov/fraud/report-fraud or 1-800-HHS-TIPS. You can also call your state's Senior Medicare Patrol.
3. Check a doctor's license and discipline history with IDFPR at idfpr.illinois.gov before starting treatment.

Case status (as of Oct. 16, 2026)

Defendant	Court	Status as of Oct. 16, 2026	Source
Eliza Diaconescu, Lake Forest, Ill.	N.D. Ill., 1:22-cr-00353	Pleaded guilty to health care fraud (2023); sentenced July 12, 2023, to 6 months and $84,031 restitution; Illinois medical license indefinitely suspended	[2], [3], [4]

Sources

1. U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Illinois, "Federal Health Care Fraud Charge Filed against Suburban Chicago Physician," July 15, 2022. https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndil/pr/federal-health-care-fraud-charge-filed-against-suburban-chicago-physician
2. Drug Enforcement Administration, "Suburban Chicago Physician Sentenced to Federal Prison for Prescribing Opioids Without a Medical Exam," July 17, 2023. https://www.dea.gov/press-releases/2023/07/17/suburban-chicago-physician-sentenced-federal-prison-prescribing-opioids
3. Lake and McHenry County Scanner, "State suspends license of Gurnee doctor convicted of prescribing painkillers to patients, billing Medicare for fake visits," Jan. 1, 2024. https://www.lakemchenryscanner.com/2024/01/01/state-suspends-license-of-gurnee-doctor-convicted-of-prescribing-painkillers-to-patients-billing-medicare-for-fake-visits/
4. CourtListener, United States v. Diaconescu, No. 1:22-cr-00353 (N.D. Ill.), docket. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/63596342/united-states-v-diaconescu/

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