A Bay City vascular surgeon was sentenced in early May to 80 months in prison for orchestrating a multimillion-dollar scheme to defraud health care programs including Medicare, Medicaid and a private health insurer.
According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of Michigan, Dr. Vasso Godiali submitted claims for the placement of vascular stents and for thrombectomies that he did not perform.
“This provider egregiously stole millions of dollars from taxpayers by billing federal health care programs for services that were neither medically necessary nor rendered to his patients,” said Special Agent in Charge Mario M. Pinto of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General.
As part of a Feburary 2022 plea agreement, Godiali was ordered to pay $19.5 million in restitution collectively to Medicare, Medicaid and Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Michigan. He also agreed to pay the federal government up to $43,419,000 to resolve related civil allegations that his fraudulent billings to federal health care programs violated the False Claims Act.
Godiali began to knowingly defraud medical insurers, including Medicare and Medicaid, around 2009, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He billed for the placement of multiple vascular stents in the same blood vessel and prepared medical records purporting to document the medical necessity justifying that billing.
According to federal prosecutors, Godiali did not place those...
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