Queens Doctor Sentenced for His Role in $15 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme
| U.S. Department of Justice January 31, 2014 |
A Queens, New York medical doctor was sentenced today to serve 12 months and a day in prison for his role in a scheme that fraudulently billed Medicare more than $15 million for, among other things, physical therapy and lesion removal services that were medically unnecessary and never provided.
Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Loretta E. Lynch of the Eastern District of New York, Assistant Director in Charge George Venizelos of the FBI’s New York Field Office, and Special Agent in Charge Thomas O’Donnell of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) made the announcement.
Hoi Yat Kam, 59, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Edward R. Korman in the Eastern District of New York. In addition to his prison term, Kam was sentenced to serve three years of supervised release and to pay $2,217,656 in restitution.
Kam pleaded guilty on January 9, 2013, to conspiracy to commit health care fraud. According to court documents, Kam conspired with others to execute a fraudulent scheme in which he and others provided a variety of spa services, such as massages and facials, as well as free meals and social activities to Medicare beneficiaries at URI Medical Service PC and Sarang Medical PC to induce those beneficiaries to allow their Medicare numbers to be billed for medical services that were never provided and were not medically necessary. URI and Sarang were two clinics in Queens that purportedly provided physical therapy and lesion removals. In total, Kam and his co-conspirators submitted approximately $15.1 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare.
The case was investigated by HHS-OIG and the FBI and brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, under the supervision by the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. The case was prosecuted by Senior Trial Attorney Nicholas Acker and Trial Attorney Bryan D. Fields of the Fraud Section. Trial Attorney Katherine Houston formerly prosecuted the case.
Since its inception in March 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, now operating in nine cities across the country, has charged more than 1,700 defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for more than $5.5 billion. In addition, HHS’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with HHS-OIG, is taking steps to increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers.
To learn more about the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), go to www.stopmedicarefraud.gov.
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