PHOENIX (AP) - The Latest on the appeal by an Arizona woman who was convicted on fraud charges for faking a cancer diagnosis to get the state to pay for her late-term abortion (all times local):
1 p.m.
The Arizona Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of a woman who was found guilty on fraud charges for faking uterine cancer to get the state to pay for her late-term abortion.
The court rejected Chalice Zeitner’s argument that a judge breached her physician-patient privilege by letting prosecutors use her medical records at trial.
The court says that laws requiring the disclosure of confidential patient information to assist in Medicaid fraud investigations create an exception to the physician-patient privilege
Zeitner was accused of presenting falsified records to support her cancer claim.
Investigators say the scheme was discovered when a doctor who performed a C-section during Zeitner’s subsequent pregnancy found no signs of cancer.
9:02 p.m.
The Arizona Supreme Court is scheduled to release a ruling Monday in the case of a woman convicted on fraud and theft charges for faking a cancer diagnosis to get the state to pay for her late-term abortion.
Chalice Renee Zeitner was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
She was accused of presenting falsified records to support her claim that she had cancer.
The health care program in which Zeitner was enrolled covers the cost of abortions in limited circumstances, such as when a mother’s life is endangered.
Investigators say the scheme was discovered a year after the April 2010 abortion when a doctor who performed a C-section during Zeitner’s subsequent pregnancy found no signs of cancer.
Zeitner lost in the Arizona Court of Appeals in early 2018.
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