A Connecticut doctor pleaded guilty today in federal court in Boston to accepting kickbacks in exchange for ordering medically unnecessary brain scans.
According to a press release from the Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, Donald Salzberg, MD, 67, of Avon, Connecticut, pleaded guilty before a United States Superior District Court judge, Douglas P. Woodlock, on one count of conspiracy to commit health care. fraud and one count of conspiracy to receive bribes.
The court has not yet set a date for a sentencing hearing. Salzberg was charged by an information on May 23.
A licensed ophthalmologist in Connecticut for 36 years, Salzberg owned and operated Donald J. Salzberg, MD, an ophthalmology practice in West Hartford, Connecticut.
According to federal authorities, from 2014 to 2019, Salzberg conspired with the director of a medical diagnostic company that performed transcranial Doppler (TCD) scans (brain scans that measure blood flow to parts of the brain) to order hundreds of medically unnecessary TCD scans. exchange for bribes.
Salzberg, whose practice is in West Hartford, Conn., used fake patient diagnoses to order the brain scans and the other person submitted claims to Medicare and other insurance companies for payment, prosecutors said.
Salzberg was paid cash kickbacks of $100 to $125 for each piece of evidence he ordered, as well as false administrative service fees. According to federal authorities, more than $3 million in fraudulent claims were submitted to Medicare and private insurance companies.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Boston noted that the charge of conspiracy to commit health care fraud carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000. The charge of conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery statute carries a penalty of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.
Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based on US sentencing guidelines and statutes governing sentencing in a criminal case.
Assistant United States Attorneys Rachel Y. Hemani and Howard Locker of the Rollins Health Care Fraud Unit are prosecuting the case.