WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich. – A Metro Detroit doctor was sentenced Thursday for his role in a $1.7 million health care fraud scheme.
Gerald Daneshvar, 41, of West Bloomfield, will spend 24 months in prison. Daneshvar was convicted in May 2017 after a two-week jury trial of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
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Daneshvar’s co-defendant, Dr. Stephen Mason, was previously sentenced on Aug. 22, 2017, to 18 months, and his other co-defendant, Dr. Leonard Van Gelder, is awaiting sentencing. Mason and Van Gelder each previously pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
According to evidence presented at trial, from August 2012 through August 2013, Daneshvar and his co-conspirators worked for Lake MI Mobile Doctors, a home-visiting physician company that provided doctor’s visits to purportedly homebound Medicare patients. While working at Mobile Doctors, Daneshvar billed Medicare for visits to patients that did not qualify for payment because the patients either were not sick or were not homebound.
Daneshvar conspired with others to bill Medicare for the highest-paying codes for these visits, even though the visits were short and perfunctory, or were unnecessary, the evidence showed.
Daneshvar also referred patients for home health services that were unnecessary and were then billed to Medicare. In exchange, Daneshvar was paid more by Mobile Doctors.
The CEO of Mobile Doctors pleaded guilty in a related case in the Northern District of Illinois and was sentenced to 15 months in prison. Another doctor who operated out of the Chicago branch of Mobile Doctors was convicted after trial and sentenced to 40 months in prison.