Fake Nurse, Physician, Sentenced To Prison After Working at 9 Assisted Living Facilities

A 45-year-old Pennsylvania man who allegedly spent years impersonating a nurse, nurse practitioner, and physician at long-term care facilities was sentenced this week to state prison, according to an announcement from the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General. Adam Herman of Slatington in Lehigh County will serve 9 to 24 months behind bars, followed by four years of probation, for a scheme that prosecutors say put dozens of vulnerable patients at risk.

Herman pleaded no contest in 2025 to 17 felonies and one misdemeanor, including practicing medicine without a license, Medicaid fraud, insurance fraud, identity theft, theft by deception, and 13 counts of neglect of a care-dependent person. He was also ordered to pay more than $104,000 in restitution.

The case, which spanned at least nine personal care and assisted living facilities in Carbon County, has raised fresh questions about how unlicensed individuals can slip into bedside roles, and what facilities should be doing to verify credentials before letting anyone near a patient.

How the Scheme Unraveled

According to the Attorney General's Office, Herman partnered with a Carbon County physician in 2022 to launch a business providing on-site medical care to residents of personal care homes and assisted living facilities. The doctor was reportedly under the impression that Herman was a registered nurse. He was not. Herman's actual role, prosecutors said, was to handle the business operations, not patient care.

That arrangement reportedly fell apart after the partnering physician became ill and was unable to practice. Instead of pausing operations, prosecutors say Herman stepped into the clinical role himself, presenting himself to patients and staff as a physician, a certified registered nurse practitioner, or a nurse, depending on the situation. He treated patients, performed procedures, and prescribed medications, all without any medical license or training.

Investigators say Herman then took the scheme a step further by using the absent doctor's phone and a physician-only authentication app to write prescriptions and submit reimbursement claims under the doctor's name, without authorization. The result was a string of improper diagnoses and dangerous prescribing decisions, including diabetes medications given to patients who were not diabetic. Some of those patients became ill and lost weight, prosecutors said.

>>Listen to The Latest Nurse News Podcast

What Prosecutors Are Saying

Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday said in a statement that Herman's conduct endangered some of the state's most vulnerable residents. "The defendant's actions put patients at serious risk and defrauded Medicaid programs designed to support vulnerable and underserved Pennsylvanians," Sunday said.

Special Agent in Charge Maureen Dixon of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General echoed that concern, telling the Attorney General's Office that "by pretending to be a medical professional...this defendant seriously imperiled health and well-being of vulnerable patients."

The case was prosecuted by Senior Deputy Attorney General Eric J. Stryd of the Medicaid Fraud Control Section and Senior Deputy Attorney General Eric Schoenberg of the Insurance Fraud Section, with help from federal investigators at HHS-OIG. According to Times News Online, Herman entered his no contest plea in Carbon County Court in February 2025, with sentencing handed down this week.

What Nurses Need to Know

For working nurses, especially those in long-term care, this case is more than a true-crime headline. It is a direct hit on the credibility of the profession. Every time someone fraudulently claims the title of "nurse" or "nurse practitioner," it chips away at the trust patients and families place in the licensed clinicians who actually earned the credential, often through years of school, clinicals, and board exams.

🤔 Have you ever worked alongside someone whose credentials did not add up? How does your facility verify that a new "provider" is actually licensed? Share your story in the comments.