A Detroit area physical therapist has pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the Medicare program of approximately $1.6 million.
Jay Jha, of Troy, Mich., pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud before U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen. At sentencing, scheduled for Dec. 16, he faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
According to plea documents, Jha’s associate owned and controlled several companies operating in the Detroit area that supposedly provided physical and occupational therapy services to Medicare beneficiaries.
Jha admitted that his associates paid cash kickbacks and other inducements to Medicare beneficiaries in exchange for the beneficiaries’ Medicare numbers and signatures on documents falsely indicating that they had received physical or occupational therapy.
Jha said he signed approximately 336 fictitious physical therapy files indicating that he had provided physical therapy services to Medicare beneficiaries. He told law enforcement officials he was paid between $90 and $110 for each file that he falsified.
Between approximately February 2003 and December 2005, Jha said, he falsified physical therapy files that supported claims to the Medicare program totaling approximately $1,680,000. Medicare paid approximately $772,800 on those claims.
The case was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, supervised by the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan.
Since the inception of strike force operations in March 2007 – in Miami (Phase One), Los Angeles (Phase Two), Detroit (Phase Three) and Houston (Phase Four) – the strike force has obtained indictments of more than 293 individuals and organizations that collectively have billed the Medicare program for more than $680 million.
Photo obtained under Creative Commons licese -Ed.