Ankita Singh, MD, a physician in Maumee, Ohio, was sentenced to 26 months in prison for her role in a scheme to defraud Medicare.
Dr. Singh participated in a durable medical equipment scheme by signing false orders for orthotic braces that patients never requested or needed, according to a July 19 news release from the Justice Department.
Starting in 2019, Dr. Singh worked as an independent contractor with at least two companies to provide telehealth services. Telemarketers from the companies would call Medicare beneficiaries and tell them that the braces would be provided to them at no cost.
Dr. Singh never saw the patients in-person and did not provide telehealth visits. Dr. Singh signed more than 11,000 prescriptions for orthotic braces for about 3,000 Medicare beneficiaries.
More than $8 million was billed to Medicare for the braces, of which Medicare paid approximately $4.47 million in claims.
Dr. Singh was found guilty of six counts of healthcare fraud on Feb. 29. In addition to the sentence, Dr. Singh was ordered to serve two years of supervised release and pay $4,470,931 in restitution, the release said.