Dr, Zahid Imran, an owner and operator of community mental health centers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has broken all records of fraud in the American health system.

As Reported on Geo TV

A Pakistani origin American doctor, an owner and operator of community mental health centers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Dr, Zahid Imran has broken all the records of fraud in the American health department.

After proof of $258.5 million fraud, the court convicted and sentenced him seven year in jail and a fine of $43.5 million.

His accomplices in this fraud were also sentenced. Chief U.S. District Court Judge Brian A. Jackson of the Middle District of Louisiana imposed the sentence.

The FBI , Health Department and Inspector General Louisiana had file a case in the courts of Louisiana where for doctor’s role in a $258 million Medicare fraud scheme regarding psychiatric services that were unnecessary or never actually provided and hefty payments were taken from the American health department.

As part of the scheme, Dr, Zahid Imran admitted mentally ill patients to the facilities, some of whom were inappropriate for partial hospitalization, and then re-certified the patients’ appropriateness for the program in an effort to continue to bill Medicare for services.

Imran and others falsified patient treatment records to reflect services on dates when no such services were provided.

The investigation of three community mental health centers; Shifa Community Mental Health Center of Baton Rouge (Shifa Baton Rouge), Serenity Center of Baton Rouge (Serenity Center), and Shifa Community Mental Health Center of Texas (Shifa Texas) were used in fraud which has resulted in the convictions of 17 individuals employed by the facilities, including owners and the medical director, therapists, marketers and administrators.

According to court documents, the companies billed Medicare more than $258 million over a period of seven years.

All these people have been booked for fraud and scam. According to court documents, Hunter, a resident of Houston, was paid $1,500 per week in cash to direct patients to attend the partial hospitalization program at Shifa Texas.

Hunter, in turn, paid each patient $75 per week to attend the program. In an effort to get patients admitted to Shifa Texas, Hunter instructed patients as to the types of symptoms and diagnoses to describe to physicians in order to be admitted to the program.

Hoor Naz Jafri, 54, owned and operated two communities’ mental health centers in Baton Rouge and one in Houston. She was to pay $43.5 million in restitution and serve 8-and-a-half years in federal prison for a Medicare fraud.

The case was investigated by HHS-OIG, the FBI, and the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the Louisiana State Attorney General’s Office, and was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, under the supervision of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.

This case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Abigail Taylor and Dustin Davis of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Shubhra Shivpuri of the Middle District of Louisiana.

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UPDATE:

As seen in this report

• The Federal Bureau of Investigation announced that an operator of community health centers in Louisiana and a patient recruiter from Texas have been sent to prison for a Medicare fraud scheme that totaled to $258 million in inappropriate claims. 

• Roslyn F. Dogan, the health center operator, both encouraged patients to seek treatment in partial hospitalization programs in full knowledge that they did not need psychiatric care and directed staff to alter records to indicate that patients received care when in fact they did not. James R. Hunter, the recruiter, recruited people who were ineligible for partial hospitalization in exchange for cash payments of $75 per week. 

• Dogan and Hunter are two of 17 total people to be convicted in this case, including psychiatrist Zahid Imran, MD, co-owner of the Louisiana community health centers and the Texas facility.

Dive Insight: 

• Leveraging partial hospitalization programs for Medicare fraud seems to be an emerging trend. Last month, four individuals—former president of Riverside Hospital, Earnest Gibson III, his son, Earnest Gibson IV, Regina Askew and Robert Crane—were convicted for taking $158 million in Medicare funds for psychiatric care that was not rendered at the Texas institution. And according to Assistant US Attorney Ted Radway, there has been an "explosion of fraud in community-based treatments."