Farid Fata, MD, a Detroit-area hematologist-oncologist, has been sentenced to 45 years in prison for administering unnecessary chemotherapy to healthy patients to enable him to fraudulently bill Medicare and private payers for the treatment, according to the Department of Justice.
In September 2014, Dr. Fata admitted he prescribed and administered unnecessary aggressive chemotherapy, cancer treatments, intravenous iron and other infusion therapies to patients in order to increase his billings to Medicare and private payers. He also admitted to soliciting kickbacks from home healthcare companies in exchange for his referral of patients to those facilities.
Dr. Fata pleaded guilty to 13 counts of healthcare fraud, one count of conspiracy to pay or receive kickbacks and two counts of money laundering. Through the scheme, Dr. Fata submitted approximately $225 million in claims to Medicare from August 2007 to July 2013.
Regarding Dr. Fata's 45-year sentence, Leslie Caldwell, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department's Criminal Division said, "Time and again, Dr. Fata callously violated his patients' trust as he used false cancer diagnoses and unwarranted and dangerous treatments as tools to steal millions of dollars from Medicare, even to profit from the last days of some patients' lives. While no sentence can restore what was taken from his patients and their families, the sentence imposed ensures that never again will Dr. Fata lay hands on another patient."
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