iNDICA NEWS BUREAU-
An Indian American physician from Edgerton, Wisconsin has been sentenced to prison for 54 months for a multimillion-dollar scheme to defraud Medicare.
Earlier this year in March, Dr. Ravi Murali, 39, pleaded guilty and was charged with 12 counts in the scheme, with the Department of Justice alleging he ordered braces regardless of medical necessity.
On Monday, November 22, he was sentenced today by Chief U.S. District Judge James D. Peterson. The judge emphasized that a severe sentence was necessary to deter other providers who were considering whether to defraud Medicare and another federal program.
Over the course of his “practice”, Dr. Murali wrote thousands of fraudulent orders for medical equipment such as medical braces. Others used those orders to bill Medicare a total of $26 million, half of which Medicare paid, according to a statement by the Department of Justice.
Dr Murali was previously disciplined by the Wisconsin Medical Examining Board for creating a fraudulent diploma to falsely claim that he completed a residency. The judge also considered this while giving a longer sentence.
He was reprimanded in that case and was ordered to complete 18 hours of medical ethics education, records show.
Records from the Wisconsin Medical Examining Board show Murali was working for multiple telemedicine companies at the time. After Murali pleaded guilty in the Medicare fraud case, the board accepted his surrender of his Wisconsin medical license, documents show.
The US department of health and human services, office of inspector general and the FBI had carried out an investigation into allegations against the physician.
