A dermatologist with a practice in Lombard, Ill., has been sentenced to seven years in prison for defrauding Medicare and private insurers by submitting false claims for thousands of patients that totaled more than $3.7 million, according to the Department of Justice.
A jury convicted Robert Kolbusz, MD, of three counts of wire fraud and three counts of mail fraud in October 2014. According to evidence presented at trial, Dr. Kolbusz falsified patients' medical records to support medically unnecessary cosmetic treatments he ordered.
From 2003 to 2010, Dr. Kolbusz submitted thousands of false claims to Medicare and private insurers for what he said were treatments to destroy pre-cancerous lesions. However, many of the treatments were cosmetic procedures, such as "lunchtime laser peals," performed by non-medical professionals from his office, according to the DOJ.
In addition to the seven-year prison sentence, Dr. Kolbusz was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $3.8 million. Dr. Kolbusz will begin serving his prison sentence Nov. 6.
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