On December 11, 2012, Hetal Barot, a physical therapy assistant from Westland, Michigan, was sentenced today to serve 30 months in prison followed by 2 years of supervised release after pleading guilty to 1 count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud. She was also ordered to pay $1,336,739 in restitution, jointly and severally with her co-defendants. Barot falsified medical documentation for home health agencies owned by her co-conspirators, creating evaluations, therapy revisit notes and other medical documentation to support physical therapy services that were billed but never rendered. From approximately May 2009 through September 2011, Medicare paid approximately $1,336,739 to four home health care companies for fraudulent physical therapy claims based on falsified files and notes signed by Barot. The four home health companies for which Barot worked were paid in total approximately $13.8 million by Medicare. With regard to Barot’s co-defendants, 9 have pleaded guilty, 3 are fugitives, and 6 await trial.
The attorneys at The Health Law Partners have a significant amount of experience in the defense of health care fraud investigations. For more information regarding such matters, please contact Robert S. Iwrey, Esq. at (248) 996-8510 or riwrey@thehlp.com
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