A physician who admitted taking bribes as part of a long-running test referral scheme operated by Parsippany, N.J.-based Biodiagnostic Laboratory Services has been sentenced to 37 months in prison, according to the Department of Justice.
Bret Ostrager, MD, admitted he received monthly cash bribes of about $3,300 from BLS employees between February 2011 and April 2013. In exchange for the bribes, Dr. Ostrager referred patient blood samples to BLS. His referrals generated approximately $909,000 in lab business for the company.
Dr. Ostrager is one of 39 people — 26 of them physicians — who have pleaded guilty in connection with the bribery scheme. Organizers of the scheme have admitted it involved millions of dollars in bribes and resulted in more than $100 million in payments to BLS from Medicare and various private insurance companies, according to the DOJ.
In addition to his prison term, Dr. Ostrager was fined $30,000 and ordered to forfeit $101,271.
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