Date: 07-19-2024

Case Style:

United States of America v. Ankita Singh

Case Number: 3:22-cr-00228

Judge: Jack Zaouhary

Court: The United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio (Lucas County)

Plaintiff's Attorney: The United States Attorney’s Office in Toledo

Defendant's Attorney:

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Description:

Toledo, Ohio criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with Health Care Fraud
Ohio Medical Doctor Sentenced to Prison for Health Care Fraud Scheme

On Feb. 29, 2024, a jury found Ankita Singh, 42, formerly of Maumee, Ohio, was found guilty of six counts of health care fraud for signing false orders for orthotic braces, that patients never requested and did not need, as part of a DME scheme.

Beginning in 2019, Singh worked as an independent contractor for at least two companies, to purportedly provide “telehealth services,” and was paid a fee to conduct patient consultations. The consultations never took place. Telemarketers would cold call Medicare beneficiaries and tell them that orthotic braces would be provided to them at no cost. The beneficiaries were not previously Singh’s patients and she never spoke to them. Singh never saw them in person and did not conduct a telehealth visit. The telemarketers would prepare orders with the beneficiaries’ names, Medicare numbers, and purported diagnosis to support a false diagnosis that the braces were medically necessary. Orders were then electronically sent to Singh to affix her signature and certify that she was treating the Medicare beneficiary and affirm that the brace was medically necessary. Singh signed more than 11,000 prescriptions for orthotic braces for approximately 3,000 Medicare beneficiaries with whom she had no patient-physician relationship, and frequently ordered multiple braces for each patient, without ever having examined them.

As a result of Singh’s false orders, more than $8 million was billed to Medicare for orthotic devices that were not medically necessary. In all, Medicare paid approximately $4.47 million in claims for the fraudulent prescriptions that Singh signed.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Gene Crawford and Angelita Cruz Bridges for the Northern District of Ohio. The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) - Office of Inspector General, and the FBI.

Outcome:

Defendant was found guilty and sentenced to 26 months in prison. She was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $4,470,931.02, serve two years of supervised release, and pay a special assessment fee of $600.

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