Lilit Baltaian, MD, a formerly licensed physician from Porter Ranch, Calif., was sentenced to 54 months in prison for falsifying home health certifications and fraudulently billing Medicare.
Dr. Baltaian is currently a fugitive and was sentenced in absentia, according to a June 12 release by the Department of Justice. From approximately January 2012 to July 2018, the court found she falsely certified patients to receive home healthcare from at least four Los Angeles area home health agencies. The certifications were used by the home health agencies to fraudulently bill Medicare.
The Justice Department said Dr. Baltaian knowingly presigned blank, undated physician certification forms that the agencies would then falsify to give the appearance that she had seen the Medicare beneficiaries and made clinical findings to support their need for home health care, when she had done neither. Ms. Baltaian received cash payments for these referrals while separately billing Medicare for signing the fraudulent certifications.
Over the same period, the four agencies used Dr. Baltaian’s false certifications to submit fraudulent claims to Medicare for a total of nearly $1.5 million, according to Justice. In November 2024, Dr. Baltaian pleaded guilty to one count of healthcare fraud. At sentencing, she was also ordered to pay $1.49 million in restitution.
