Back in January, we posted a blog about a doctor who was unceremoniously nicknamed “The Greedy Butcher”. We took special interest in the story of Dr. Aria Sabit, considering that he was one of the worst examples of a no-regard-for-human-safety, money-hungry physician we had come across in quite some time. Earning his deprecating moniker by both bilking Medicare of over $33 million and crippling his patients due to improper surgical procedures, the Detroit-based doctor brought a great deal of shame to the city.
Unfortunately, Michigan’s largest city seems to have its fair share of disgraced doctors. As reported by The United States Department of Justice last week, not one, not two…but three more Detroit-area doctors have been convicted of health care fraud. The first doctor, 40 year-old, Gerald Daneshvar of West Bloomfield, Michigan, was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud on May 8th, following a near two-week trial.
Working for a home visiting physician service known as Lake MI Mobile Doctors from 2012 to 2013, Daneshvar visited patients who did not qualify for the visiting physician services. He then billed the visits to Medicare using the highest billing codes. According to the report, evidence in the trial showed that Daneshvar billed Medicare for home visits that required complex examinations that would last between 40 and 60 minutes each.
In actuality, he would rush through upwards of 22 home visits a day, spending an average of 15 minutes or less with each of his patients. Of course, embellishing upon the time he spent with each patient in his billings to Medicare earned him more money. “The evidence also showed that he ordered unnecessary tests, in order to receive larger bonuses,” notes the report.
69 year-old Leonard Van Gelder of Caledonia, Michigan and 46 year-old Stephen Mason of Indianapolis, Indiana were the other two doctors connected with this case. Each of them pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud in March 2017 and December 2016, respectively. Both doctors admitted to seeing patients who did not need their services and billing Medicare for those visits at the highest billing codes.
Lake MI Mobile Doctors, which is based in Chicago, Illinois but has an office in the Detroit suburb of Southfield, billed Medicare in excess of $17.1 million, in total, as a result of the schemes pulled off by the three doctors.
Through the eyes of the medical world, it can be argued that it has not been a good year for the city of Detroit, so far. With a rising number of physicians being convicted of health care fraud, the Motor City continues to have its name blemished. Of course, we don’t believe that Detroit necessarily has more bad doctors than the rest of the United States. We’re reminded, on a regular basis, just how much of an epidemic health care fraud is in our country.
For this reason, the clinical experts at Allegiant Experts continue to be dedicated towards helping attorneys who are trying cases against perpetrators of health care fraud. For more information about our experience, expertise and how we may be able to help your case, please don’t hesitate to call us at 407-217-5831 or email us at info@allegiantexperts.com.