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Benjamin Sabido, 62, pleaded guilty to health care fraud, admitting that he billed Medicare for services from unlicensed and unsupervised providers, as well as for those that weren’t provided at all.
Sabido received $237,182 from Medicare and Medicaid based upon fraudulent claims, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said this afternoon.
He “instructed staff to submit bills for physical therapy serves that were not in fact provided,” and also “authorized and encouraged unqualified staff members to provide physical therapy services, including electrical stimulation, massage, and other therapeutic services,” Fishman said.
While doing so, Sabido “did not employ any licensed physical therapists, nor anyone otherwise qualified to provide physical therapy services,” he said.
In addition to the sentence, Sabido agreed to pay $700,545, plus interest, to resolve allegations arising from his submission of claims for physical therapy and nerve conduction studies.
“From December 2006 to December 2010, Sabido submitted to Medicare and Medicaid claims for physical therapy services that were rendered because the patients wanted these services and not necessarily because they benefited from them, were not provided pursuant to a plan of care, were not properly supervised, or were not provided by qualified personnel,” Fishman said.
“The settlement alleges that from January 2006 through December 2010, Sabido submitted to Medicare claims for nerve conduction studies for which Sabido’s patient charts do not establish that the services were medically necessary or, in some cases, even rendered,” he said.
“Except as admitted in the plea agreement, the claims settled by the civil settlement agreement are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability as to those claims,” the U.S. attorney added.
Fishman credited special agents of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General for the investigation.
Handling the case for the government is Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Mack, Deputy Chief of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Health Care and Government Fraud Unit on the criminal end, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Graybow of the Health Care and Government Fraud Unit on the civil end.
U.S. District Judge Claire C. Cecchi set sentencing for May 14.
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