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TRENTON - Attorney General Anne Milgram and Criminal Justice Director Gregory A. Paw announced that a Union County physician was sentenced today for fraudulently billing a Medicaid-funded managed care organization more than $9,000 for services never rendered.
According to Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Greta Gooden Brown, Aruna S. Patel, 63, of Elizabeth, was sentenced by Superior Court Judge John S. Triarsi in Union County to a term of three years probation and was ordered to pay $9,000 in restitution. The sentence is pursuant to Patel’s March 26 guilty plea to a criminal accusation charging her with Medicaid fraud.
In pleading guilty before Judge Triarsi, Patel, a New Jersey-licensed physician, admitted that between September 2003 and June 2005, she committed Medicaid fraud by submitting false statements or causing false statements to be submitted on her behalf. Patel admitted that she fraudulently submitted bill claims to Americhoice falsely stating that certain patients were treated at her office on 165 treatment dates, when in fact those patients were neither seen nor treated by Patel on those dates. Americhoice is a managed care organization which participates in the Medicaid program. As a result of the fraud, Patel stole $9,257 in Medicaid health insurance claims monies.
The investigation into this matter was conducted by the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, which investigates and prosecutes Medicaid fraud. The Medicaid program, which is funded by the state and federal governments, provides health care services and prescription drugs to persons who may not otherwise be able to afford such services and medicines
State Investigator Christine Barclay, Deputy Attorney General Linda A. Rinaldi and Assistant Attorney General John Krayniak were assigned to the investigation. Rinaldi represented the Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor at the sentencing.
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