A Michigan physician was convicted of one count of healthcare fraud and five counts of false statements relating to healthcare matters for her role in a $6.3 million Medicare fraud scheme.
Sophie Toya, MD, of Bloomfield Hills, signed thousands of orthotic braces prescriptions for more than 2,500 Medicare patients over the course of six months, according to a May 10 Justice Department news release. She was not the treating physician for any of those patients. She was connected to some of them over the phone through a telemarketing scheme. She talked to them briefly before signing orthotic brace prescriptions. For other patients, Dr. Toya signed prescriptions without having any contact with them.
Dr. Toya's false prescriptions were used by brace supply companies to bill Medicare more than $6.3 million, according to the release. She was paid about $120,000 in exchange for signing the fraudulent prescriptions.
She is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 15.