Doctor Sentenced to 13 Years in Prison for $7 Million Medicare Scheme

A New York doctor will be serving 13 years behind bars after being convicted of orchestrating a $7 million Medicare scheme.

Brooklyn Federal Judge Dora Irizarry sentenced Dr. Syed Imran Ahmed, 51, to 13 years in federal prison and ordered him to pay more than $14 million in restitution, forfeiture, and fines to the federal government for billing Medicare $7 million for procedures he did not perform, the New York Daily News reported.

Prosecutors say Ahmed, a surgeon specializing in weight loss and wound treatment, billed the government insurance program for “incision-and-drainage and wound debridement procedures” that never occurred, the Long Island Business News reported.

In some cases, the Long Island and Brooklyn-based surgeon claimed he performed 600 procedures on an elderly woman, according to the Daily News.

“Dr. Syed Ahmed treated Medicare like a personal piggy bank, stealing over $7.2 million by making fraudulent claims for medical procedures he never performed,” Interim Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue said in a statement.

Ahmed was convicted of one count of health care fraud, two counts of money laundering, and three counts of making false statements on health care matters in July 2016.