While diagnosing and treating patients virtually, a telemedicine doctor from Kansas ordered “millions of dollars’ worth of unnecessary and expensive genetic tests and orthotic braces,” according to federal authorities.
Now, Dr. Gautam Jayaswal, of Overland Park, has pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court in St. Louis to conspiracy to commit health care fraud, records show.
The 64-year-old man faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine in addition to restitution, according to a May 9 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri.
The defense attorney representing Jayaswal did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Mister Truth on May 10.
Medically licensed since 1986, Jayaswal mostly worked as an emergency room physician, according to his signed plea agreement.
Starting in 2017 and continuing into 2021, authorities said Jayaswal contracted as a telemedicine doctor with several companies.
“Through these companies, (he) ordered medically unnecessary durable medical equipment and genetic tests for thousands of patients,” prosecutors said.
Between January 2017 and May 2021, authorities said Jayaswal ordered orthotic braces for about 1,433 patients. The companies that supplied the braces then received about $1,366,123 from Medicare.
And between June 2018 and September 2021, Jayaswal “fraudulently signed genetic test orders and caused the laboratories receiving his genetic test orders to submit reimbursement claims to health care benefit programs,” according to the plea agreement. The laboratories received approximately $14,707,687 for 2,061 Medicare patients.
The doctor knew the braces and tests were not medically necessary, according to his plea, and he knew the companies were submitting reimbursement claims on his fraudulent orders.