A Michigan vascular surgeon will serve 80 months in prison for submitting $19.5 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare, Medicaid and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.
Vasso Godiali, MD, was also sentenced May 3 to pay $19.5 million restitution to Medicare, Medicaid and BCBS Michigan, according to a May 25 news release from the Justice Department. He will pay up to $43.4 million to settle civil allegations related to the fraudulent billings, according to settlement documents.
Dr. Godiali operated Bay City Vascular in Bay City, Mich. According to the Justice Department, Dr. Godiali began to knowingly defraud insurers around 2009.
Dr. Godiali billed payers for the cost of procedures he did not perform, including thrombectomies and placing multiple arterial stents in the same blood vessel. According to the Justice Department, Dr. Godiali created false medical records to back up the medical necessity of these procedures.