A Connecticut doctor pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston today to receiving a kickback in exchange for ordering a medically unnecessary brain scan.
Donald Salzburg, M.D., 67, of Avon, Connecticut, has been accused of conspiring to administer health care before U.S. Superior District Court Judge Douglas P. Woodlock, according to a news release from the Massachusetts District Attorney’s Office. Pled guilty to one count. His one count of fraud and collusion to receive kickbacks.
The court has not yet set a date for the sentencing hearing. Salzberg said he was indicted by Information on May 23.
A Connecticut licensed ophthalmologist for 36 years, Mr. Salzberg owned and operated Donald J. Salzberg, MD, an eye clinic in West Hartford, Connecticut.
From 2014 to 2019, according to federal officials, Salzburg colluded with principals in a medical diagnostics company to perform transcranial Doppler (TCD) scans (brain scans that measure blood flow in parts of the brain) to I ordered hundreds of TCD scans that I don’t need. exchanged for kickback.
Salzburg, who works in West Hartford, Connecticut, used false patient diagnoses to order brain scans and others filed bills with Medicare and other insurance companies to seek payment, prosecutors said. said.
Salzberg received a cash rebate of $100 to $125 for each test ordered and a false administrative service fee. More than $3 million in fraudulent claims have been filed with Medicare and private insurers, according to federal officials.
Boston’s federal attorney’s office said conspiracy to commit health care fraud carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000. Conspiracy to violate anti-kickback laws carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a maximum fine of $250,000.
Sentences are imposed by federal district court judges under the United States Sentencing Guidelines and statutes governing sentencing decisions in criminal cases.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Rachel Y. Hemani and Howard Locker of the Rollins Healthcare Fraud Unit are prosecuting the case.
