Physician Sentenced to 151 Months in Prison for $77 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme.
A New York physician, Dr. Gustave Drivas, was sentenced to serve 151 months in prison for his role in a $77 Million scheme to defraud Medicare. Dr. Drivas’ medical license was revoked by the State of New York earlier this year. The evidence at trial established that Dr. Drivas knowingly authorized his co-conspirators at a Brooklyn medical clinic to use his Medicare billing number to charge Medicare more than $20 million in medical procedures and services that were never performed. Dr. Drivas received more than $500,000 for his role in the scheme, although it was shown at trial that Dr. Drivas almost never visited the clinic, other than to pick up his check. Additionally, evidence showed that the clinic paid cash kickbacks to Medicare beneficiaries to use the beneficiaries’ names to bill Medicare for more than $77 million in services that were medically unnecessary and never provided.
In addition to the prison sentence, Dr. Drivas was ordered to forfeit $511,000 and to pay restitution in the amount of $50.9 million.
The Department of Justice press release related to the fraud scheme is available at:
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2013/September/13-crm-1032.html.
Department of Justice. “’No Show’ Doctor Sentenced to 151 Months in Prison in Connection with $77 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme.” Justice News. 16 Sept. 2013.
