Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

A Saratoga, California physician pretended that she didn’t understand how the federal healthcare system worked. It did not turn out well.

Family practitioner Vilasini Ganesh coordinated with her husband, Gregory Belcher, to defraud Medicare by submitting “a series of false medical claims related to the family medical practice she owned, Campbell Medical Group in Saratoga,” noted a Department of Justice (DOJ) release on the case. Ganesh sent reports that she’d seen some patients “12 to 15 time” in a month and billed for that care when the provider hadn’t seen them at all, the release suggested. Claims were also submitted under a Medicare provider who was no longer a part of the practice.

After an eight-week trial, the jury sentenced the defendants to 63 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and restitution equaling $344,916.20.

Interesting: In the midst of the sentencing, Judge Lucy H. Koh pointed to Ganesh’s efforts to obstruct justice, upcharge, and cheat the system. “Judge Koh found that Ganesh had abused a position of trust by submitting the false claims,” indicated the release.

Read the DOJ release on the case at www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/saratoga-doctor-sentenced-more-five-years-prison-health-care-fraud-and-providing-false.