Former Virginia physician Leonard Rosen, MD, was sentenced March 18 for his role in a $1.8 million fraud scheme that exploited payers and patients, according to The Washington Post.
Mr. Rosen pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in September to prescribing medically unnecessary and expensive medications to patients for kickbacks. He also billed some in-network patients as an out-of-network provider and made about $100,000 in bribes.
"Through his deceit and greed, Rosen exploited the trust placed in him as a medical professional to engage in an extensive scheme that defrauded health insurance programs out of $1.8 million," Raj Parekh, acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said in a September news release.
Mr. Rosen's medical license has been revoked and he's agreed to pay $1.3 million in restitution to payers. He was sentenced to two years of probation with six months of at-home confinement, according to the Post.
Mr. Rosen was one piece of a larger $8 million scheme that centered on physicians prescribing expensive drugs through pharmacists who then paid bribes to fill the orders.
Court records claim that the scheme was first started by two other physicians, only one of whom has been charged with a crime.