The CEO of a medical group with providers in Michigan and Ohio was sentenced to prison and ordered to pay millions in restitution for his role in a $150 million fraud scheme.
Five details:
1. Mashiyat Rashid, CEO of West Bloomfield, Mich.-based Tri-County Wellness Group, pleaded guilty in 2018 to healthcare fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison and ordered to pay $51 million in restitution to Medicare on March 3.
2. Mr. Rashid was also ordered to forfeit $11.5 million, commercial and residential real estate, Detroit Pistons season tickets and more related to proceeds from the fraud scheme.
3. While Mr. Rashid was CEO of Tri-County Wellness Group from 2008 to 2016, the clinic offered Oxycodone prescriptions in exchange for unnecessary spinal injections. Some of the individuals who received opioid prescriptions were drug dealers or opioid addicts, according to the Justice Department.
4. Mr. Rashid developed the scheme and split Medicare reimbursements for the unnecessary injections with physicians to incentivize additional procedures.
5. The practice was paid more for facet joint injections than any other U.S. medical clinic, according to the Justice Department.