Fraud, TN, Behavioral Health
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TN psychiatrist stole $500k for up-coded and fake office visits.
ABINGDON — A Wise psychiatrist has pleaded guilty to one count of health care fraud in connection with a six-year series of overbilling Medicaid and Medicare.
According to acting Western District U.S. Attorney Daniel P. Bubar, Uzma Ehtesham, 52, pleaded guilty in Abingdon U.S. District Court on Thursday to federal health care fraud after waiving her right to be indicted.
Bubar said that Ehtesham, between 2010 and 2016, billed Virginia Medicare and Medicaid $500,000 in total fraudulent payments for individual patient office visits — more than 50 a day at times — while claiming “extensive, time consuming and costly office visits” while actually seeing patients in groups of two to four in sessions lasting five to six minutes.
Ehtesham, as part of her plea agreement, is required to pay $1 million total in restitution, fines and forfeiture. She is scheduled for a Jan. 28, 2021, sentencing hearing.
The investigation against Ehtesham was conducted by the Virginia Office of the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, Norton Police Department, Southwest Virginia Drug Task Force, and Virginia State Police along with various local police departments, Virginia ABC and the Wise County and Norton Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office.