A New Jersey physician was hit with federal criminal charges Tuesday for allegedly accepting $200,000 in bribes in exchange for test referrals to Biodiagnostic Laboratory Services LLC, becoming the latest medical professional ensnared in a massive, $100 million kickback scheme involving the New Jersey laboratory, the Department of Justice announced yesterday, March 8, 2016.
Dr. Bernard Greenspan, 78, of Saddlebrook, New Jersey was charged in New Jersey federal court on 10 counts of conspiracy and violating the Anti-Kickback Statute and the Federal Travel Act and committing violations of wire fraud.
Prosecutors allege that from around March 2006 to April 2013, Greenspan agreed to refer the blood specimens of his Medicare and private insurer patients to BLS for testing in exchange for monthly bribe payments, which enabled the Parsippany, New Jersey-based lab to collect more than $3 million in insurance payments.
In all, 26 doctors and 13 others have pled guilty in the BLS scheme, according to the Justice Department. The government said this is likely the greatest number of medical professionals to be prosecuted in a case over bribery.
“The charges contained in the indictment allege an extremely lucrative pattern of soliciting and accepting illegal payments for referrals to a specific testing lab,” U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said in a statement Tuesday. “This indictment is part of our continued commitment to prosecute those physicians who sought to enrich themselves through their involvement in the BLS bribery scheme.”
Prosecutors alleged he periodically solicited, and received from the BLS employees and associates, monthly bribe payments in the form of sham rental, service agreement, and consultant payments.
The Federal Travel Act (18 USC 1952) is particularly interesting as it is being dusted off more frequently by federal prosecutors to capture interstate travel in aid of a racketeering enterprise. Need to keep an eye on this one…
