Two Sentenced for $65M Medicare Fraud Schemes

Two major Medicare fraud schemes have resulted in significant sentences for the perpetrators, highlighting the ongoing challenges facing federal authorities in combating healthcare fraud. In New York, Manishkumar Patel was sentenced to 14 months in prison and ordered to pay over $48 million in restitution for orchestrating a scheme that involved selling fraudulent prescriptions and doctors’ orders for unnecessary medical equipment and services, causing substantial losses to Medicare. Patel obtained beneficiary information through deceptive call centers and sold falsified scripts to providers, concealing illegal proceeds through sham contracts. Meanwhile, in California, Petros Fichidzhyan received a 12-year sentence for running sham hospice companies and a home health care agency that fraudulently billed Medicare for services that were either unnecessary or never provided. Fichidzhyan used stolen identities of foreign nationals and doctors, including deceased physicians, to submit false claims and laundered millions through shell companies. These cases illustrate both the complexity and scale of recent Medicare fraud efforts and the Justice Department's active response to such crimes.