BROOKLINE, Mass. (MyFoxBoston.com) -- A Brookline doctor was ordered to pay over $9 million and serve jail time after pleading guilty to running a Medicaid fraud scheme.
Dr. Punyamurtula Kishore, 64, and his company Preventive Medicine Associates, Inc., pleaded guilty in court Monday. PMA pleaded guilty to charges of Medicaid kickbacks, eight counts; Medicaid false claims, 19 counts; and larceny over $250, 11 counts. Kishore pleaded guilty to one count of larceny over $250.
According to the AG's investigation, Kishore used bribes to convince sober house owners to send their residents' urine drug screening tests to his labs for testing. That test can be billed to MassHealth and officials say Kishore illegally obtained an enormous amount of drug screens paid for by MassHealth for sober house residents who were never seen by PMA providers.
âDr. Kishore orchestrated a complex kickback scheme to funnel a lucrative drug screening business to his laboratories and then billed taxpayers millions of dollars for those services,â Attorney General Maura Healey said. âThis case exhibited blatant theft of state funds that were supposed to go toward care for some of our most vulnerable residents. This is fraud that undermines the integrity of our health care system.â
Kishore was sentenced to a year in prison, with 11 months to serve and the balance suspended for 10 years. He also had to surrender his license to practice medicine. Lastly, he, and his company, were ordered to pay $9.3 million in restitution to MassHealth.
Cox Media Group
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/7QOJU3BNCJERBNKJC5LWTBYFLU.png)
