Edited by: TJV News
Audrey Strauss, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that physical therapist Hatem Behiry was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Lorna G. Schofield to 24 months in prison for his participation in a $30 million scheme to defraud Medicare and the New York State Medicaid Program Between 2007 and late 2012, on a regular basis.
Behiry falsely pretended to provide physical therapy services to patients, and falsified medical records in a fraudulent scheme to bill Medicare and Medicaid for non-existent services.
Behiry and a co-defendant physician, Paul J. Mathieu, were convicted in May 2019, following a six-week trial, on charges of health care fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, conspiracy to commit those offenses, and conspiracy to make false statements in connection with a federal health care program.
Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said: “At a time when our medical system may be more important than ever, today’s sentence sends an unambiguous message that those who cheat Medicare and Medicaid will be held accountable. Corrupt health care professionals who defraud Medicare and Medicaid betray their medical training, their professions, their patients, and the taxpayers. These taxpayer-funded programs are designed to provide essential medical services to the elderly and the needy, not to enrich corrupt therapists and other fraudsters.”
According to the evidence presented at trial and other public documents:
Between 2007 and 2013, Aleksandr Burman – who is currently serving a 10-year prison term for his participation in this scheme – owned and operated six medical clinics in Brooklyn that fraudulently billed Medicare and Medicaid approximately $30 million for medical services and supplies that were not provided, were provided without regard to medical necessity, or were otherwise fraudulently billed. As part of this scheme, three medical doctors – Mathieu, Mustak Y. Vaid, and Ewald J. Antone, all of whom have been convicted and sentenced in this case – falsely posed as the owners of the Clinics. The doctors did so by, among other things, signing various fraudulent documents that falsely represented to banks, Medicare, Medicaid, and others that they were the owners of the clinics.
Mathieu, Vaid, and Antoine also came weekly to the clinics, where they signed stacks of false and fraudulent medical charts and billing documents for patients that they had not seen, and issued referrals for unnecessary testing, occupational therapy, and physical therapy.