A US federal jury convicted an Indian-American physician of submitting greater than $5.4 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare. These claims involved braces ordered via a telemarketing scheme. In a single case, the physician of Indian origin prescribed a knee brace to an individual with amputated legs.
Adarsh Gupta, an Indian-American physician from Sewell, New Jersey, has been discovered responsible of healthcare fraud and making false statements associated to healthcare issues.
In line with courtroom paperwork and proof offered at trial, Gupta signed 1000’s of pointless prescriptions for braces for greater than 2,900 Medicare beneficiaries.
These beneficiaries have been contacted by telemarketers who satisfied them to just accept the gadgets.
After transient phone conversations with the beneficiaries, Gupta prescribed them the gadgets with out correctly diagnosing their medical wants.
For instance, in a single case, Gupta prescribed a again, shoulder, wrist and knee brace to an spy after talking with them for simply over a minute.
In one other case, he prescribed a knee brace to an individual with amputated legs.
The proof confirmed that Gupta couldn’t have decided whether or not the braces have been crucial based mostly on these transient cellphone calls.
Nevertheless, he signed prescriptions falsely claiming medical necessity and that he had a care plan for the beneficiaries.
The brace provide corporations then used these prescriptions to fraudulently invoice Medicare greater than $5.4 million.
Gupta was discovered responsible of three counts of healthcare fraud and two counts of constructing false statements referring to healthcare issues.
He faces a most sentence of 10 years in jail for every depend of healthcare fraud and 5 years for every depend of false assertion.
Sentencing in Gupta’s case is scheduled for October 8.