A urologist in California was sentenced to 71 months in prison Feb. 24 for submitting more than $700,000 in fraudulent billings to Medicare, according to the Department of Justice.
Mark Wilfred Tamarin, MD, was sentenced about seven months after a jury found him guilty of six counts of wire fraud and one count of attempted healthcare fraud.
According to evidence presented during the seven-day trial, Dr. Tamarin billed Medicare for services he did not perform and ordered medically unnecessary tests. Evidence showed that on several occasions between 2009 and 2013, Dr. Tamarin was purportedly treating patients at two places at the same time.
From 2009 until 2013, Dr. Tamarin was a partner at Advanced Urology Medical Offices, which had offices in Torrance and West Los Angeles. He ordered two to three times as many post-void residual tests and renal ultrasounds for urology patients as his three medical partners. Though these tests are only appropriate in limited medical circumstances, Dr. Tamarin ordered them before speaking with or seeing a patient, according to the Justice Department.
In addition to the prison term, Dr. Tamarin was ordered to pay nearly $345,000 in restitution.