Overland Park, Kan.-based emergency room physician Gautam Jayaswal, MD, pleaded guilty to ordering millions of dollars' worth of unnecessary genetic tests and orthotic braces as a part of a telemedicine fraud scheme, the Justice Department said May 9.
From 2017 to 2021, he was contracted with multiple companies to work as a telemedicine physician when he fraudulently ordered at least one orthotic brace for 1,433 patients, defrauding Medicare of around approximately $1.36 million.
Additionally, from June 2018 and September 2021, he signed orders for medically unnecessary genetic tests. Medicare paid around $14.7 million for genetic tests for 2,061 patients for whom he was listed as the ordering physician.
Dr. Jayaswal faces up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 or both.