Psychiatrist gets prison, fine in wheelchair scam

Via the Houston Chronicle

A Houston psychiatrist was sentenced to more than six years in prison and ordered to pay $20.6 million in restitution for defrauding the federal government in a scheme to sell unneeded motorized wheelchairs.

U.S. District Court Judge Lee Rosenthal also ordered Tuesday that Dr. Lewis Gottlieb forfeit $19 million in proceeds or property derived from a scheme to defraud Medicare and Medicaid.

Gottlieb was indicted in September 2003 with six others accused of involvement in a separate group operating the same fraud scheme.

He was among the first to be targeted in a federal crackdown on a widespread scheme that, at the time, was centered in Houston.

Since his arrest, two doctors who worked with Gottlieb and three medical equipment suppliers involved in the scheme have been convicted by a jury and are awaiting sentencing.

Gottlieb admitted accepting $200 kickbacks for each prescription he wrote for a motorized wheelchair, most of which were unneeded. The kickbacks were paid by recruiters working for medical supply companies, prosecutors said.

He also admitted that he refused to sign prescriptions unless patients also agreed to sign a form showing they needed his psychiatric services, for which Gottlieb billed the government.

Medical supply companies used the prescriptions to bill Medicare and Medicaid for motorized wheelchairs costing more than $4,000, then substituted motorized scooters costing about $1,600 and pocketed the difference, prosecutors said.