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FBI
Egregious Case
of Health Care Fraud:
Cancer Doctor Admits Prescribing Unnecessary
Chemotherapy
11/06/14
Imagine receiving a diagnosis of cancer and then having to go through
chemotherapy or other intensive treatments. Then imagine finding out
that you never had cancer in the first place and that your doctor—whom
you trusted implicitly—merely used you in his scheme to fraudulently
bill the federal Medicare program and private insurance companies for
hundreds of millions of dollars.
That’s exactly what happened to patients of Dr. Farid Fata, a
Detroit-area hematologist and oncologist. And it was not only cancer
diagnoses. Some patients were told, wrongly, that they had other
conditions which required expensive intravenous therapies, medications,
and diagnostic tests...all of which jeopardized their health and
well-being.
But after a thorough investigation by the FBI, Department of Health and
Human Services’ Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), and the Internal
Revenue Service-Criminal Investigations (IRS-CI)—and just before his
trial was scheduled to begin—Fata recently pled guilty to 13 health
care fraud crimes against his patients, as well as one count of
conspiracy to receive kickbacks and two counts of money laundering.
Fata operated a cancer treatment clinic—Michigan Hematology Oncology,
P.C.—which had multiple locations throughout Michigan. He also owned a
diagnostic testing facility—United Diagnostics, PLLC—in Rochester
Hills, Michigan. His case came to light in the summer of 2013, when
allegations against him came to the attention of the U.S. Attorney’s
Office for the Eastern District of Michigan and the Medicare Fraud
Strike Force from the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Criminal Division.
Because of the seriousness of the allegations and the potential risk to
the health of Fata’s current patients and any future patients, FBI and
HHS-OIG investigators, as well as Assistant U.S. Attorneys and DOJ
Criminal Division prosecutors, moved quickly to collect corroborating
information from employees in his practice. Within days, there was
enough evidence to arrest him and shut down his businesses.
After his arrest, agents, prosecutors, and staff at each of the
involved agencies worked around the clock to ensure that all of Fata’s
patients—past and present—got their medical files so they could receive
continued care. Investigators and prosecutors also contacted major
medical centers in the southeastern Michigan area to ensure that Fata’s
patients would be taken in quickly by new treating physicians.
In the months that followed, agents and prosecutors pored over billing
data, medical records, financial records, and other materials recovered
in searches of Fata’s businesses. In addition, agents interviewed
hundreds of witnesses, including employees, former patients, and family
members of patients.
Fata’s plea to the health care fraud charges, kickback conspiracy, and
money laundering was the culmination of an intensive and extensive
investigation. Some of the conduct he admitted to in his guilty plea
included:
Administering unnecessary chemotherapy infusions;
Administering unnecessary iron infusions;
Administering unnecessary human growth factors;
Ordering unnecessary cancer tests;
Accepting kickbacks to refer patients for home health care services; and
Promoting his cancer test fraud scheme with money laundered from his
infusion fraud scheme.
At his upcoming sentencing, Fata faces up to 175 years in prison on the
charges he pled guilty to. The U.S. Attorney has stated that
prosecutors intend to seek life.
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