Doctor admits to receiving kickbacks for sham brain scans

BOSTON (AP) — A Connecticut ophthalmologist has pleaded guilty to receiving kickbacks in a scheme in which he ordered hundreds of medically unnecessary brain scans that resulted in millions of dollars in fraudulent billing to health insurers, federal prosecutors said.

Dr. Donald Salzberg, 67, conspired with an alleged accomplice at a medical diagnostic company in the scheme that ran from 2014 through 2019, the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston said in a statement Thursday.

Salzberg, whose practice is in West Hartford, Connecticut, used false patient diagnoses to order the brain scans and the other person would submit claims to Medicare and other insurance companies for payment, prosecutors said.

Salzberg was paid cash kickbacks of $100 to $125 per test that he ordered, as well as sham administrative services fees, while more than $3 million in fraudulent claims were submitted to Medicare and private insurance companies, prosecutors said.

Salzberg pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and conspiracy to receive kickbacks. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. A sentencing hearing has not yet been scheduled.

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