Here are four physician fraud cases Becker's has reported on since April 8:
1. Sylvan Lake, Mich., physician Rainna Furnari Brazil, DO, will face charges in a state circuit court of committing a disability fraud scheme. Dr. Brazil allegedly continued to work while receiving $400,000 in disability pay through the Unum Life Insurance Company of America.
2. Fazal Panezai, MD, a cardiologist in Morganville, N.J., pleaded guilty to participating in a healthcare fraud scheme that led to more than $1.9 million in insurance reimbursements for false claims. He owned and operated Matawan-Aberdeen Heart and Medical Center, submitting false claims to at least six insurance companies.
3. A physician and a chiropractor at a Kentucky pain clinic were sentenced for their roles in a scheme that defrauded Medicare, Medicaid and commercial insurance companies of more than $4 million. The clinic's medical director, William Lawrence Siefert, MD, was sentenced to one year and six months in prison and ordered to pay $1.97 million in restitution. He was involved in a scheme where he billed for urine drug tests that were not medically necessary but were lucratively reimbursed by providers such as Medicare and Medicaid.
4. Osteopathic medicine physician Lee Peter Bee, DO, who formerly practiced in Sesser, Ill., was sentenced to five months in prison and five months of home confinement after he pleaded guilty to two counts of healthcare fraud. Between January 2015 and January 2020, he billed Medicaid and private insurance companies for medical services he did not perform.