An Ohio physician was sentenced to 26 months in prison for her role in a scheme that billed Medicare more than $8 million for orthotic devices that were not medically necessary.
Ankita Singh, MD, 42, formerly of Maumee, Ohio, was convicted in February on six counts of healthcare fraud, according to a July 19 Justice Department news release.
The Justice Department said that beginning in 2019, Dr. Singh worked as an independent contractor for at least two companies purportedly providing telehealth services. She was paid a fee to conduct patient consultations, but the consultations never took place. Telemarketers cold-called Medicare beneficiaries and told them that orthotic braces would be provided to them at no cost. The beneficiaries were not previously her patients and she never spoke to them.
Dr. Singh signed more than 11,000 prescriptions for orthotic braces for approximately 3,000 Medicare beneficiaries with whom she had no patient-physician relationship, and frequently ordered multiple braces for each patient, according to the release.
Medicare paid about $4.47 million of the more than $8 million in false claims that were billed to the healthcare program as a result of Dr. Singh's false orders, according to the release.
In addition to prison time, Dr. Singh was also ordered to pay more than $4.47 million in restitution and pay a special assessment fee of $600.