DETROIT, MI — A federal grand jury has indicted an Oakland County doctor on a charge of healthcare fraud, alleging she ran a scheme to submit bogus claims to Medicare.
According to a criminal complaint authored by an FBI special agent, Dr. Sangita Patel, 50, operates Advance Home Physicians Center in Troy. From April 2020 through early February of this year, Patel allegedly submitted more than $1 million in false claims to Medicare for telehealth services she did not provide. Medicare in turn paid more than $448,000 on those fraudulent claims.
Medicare regulations require telehealth visits include an audio and video component.
Yet according to the complaint, cellular phone evidence indicates Patel would delegate a person in Tuscola County to call Medicare beneficiaries on Patel’s behalf. This person, who is not named in the complaint, was not a licensed medical assistant.
After these calls, Patel would submit claims as if she had provided telehealth visits to the Medicare beneficiaries whom the individual had called.
From about July 1, 2020, through June 30, 2022, about 76% of Patel’s Medicare reimbursements were for telehealth-related claims. These payments were about nine times the payments for the prior two-year period, the complaint states.
Patel prescribed Schedule II controlled substances to more than 90% of the patients involved in her telehealth insurance claims, the complaint continues. The Tuscola County resident would enter electronic prescriptions for Schedule...
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