Indian-origin doctor, Dr Dipak Desai in US gets 71-month jail for health insurance fraud

In an embarrassing  news to the  indian origin medical fraternity in the US, Dr Dipak Desai, an doctor practising in the US has been sent to jail for health insurance fraud amounting to over $2.2 million

An Indian-origin doctor has been sentenced to 71 months in a federal prison and ordered to repay over $2.2 million for health insurance fraud, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced on Friday.

Dipak Desai, who ran an endoscopy centre, overcharged the U.S. health insurance systems for senior citizens and for the poor as well as private health insurers for providing anaesthesia services, according to Daniel G. Bogden, the Nevada federal prosecutor.

The Las Vegas doctor, who had pleaded guilty to conspiracy and health care fraud, was sentenced by federal Judge Larry R. Hicks.

“Dr. Dipak Desai intentionally defrauded the federal health care system for his own personal enrichment,” Mr. Bogden said. “We are hopeful this closes a long and sordid chapter of harm caused to the people and businesses of Nevada.”

An FBI press release said that Dr. Dipak Desai and his endoscopy company’s chief operating officer Tonya Rushing “imposed intense pressure on the endoscopy centre employees to schedule and treat as many patients as possible in a day, and instructed the nurse anaesthetists to overstate in their records the amount of time they spent on the anaesthesia procedures.”

Rushing was earlier sentenced to a year in jail for her role in the scam.