News Briefs: September 10, 2018

◆ Riyaz Mazcuri, a former attending psychiatrist at Riverside General Hospital in Houston, Texas, was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison and ordered to pay about $23 million in restitution for his role in a scheme to defraud Medicare and Medicaid for psychiatric services, the Department of Justice and U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas said Sept. 4. A jury convicted Mazcuri of health care fraud and conspiracy to commit health care fraud. According to the U.S. attorney’s office, between 2006 and February 2012, Mazcuri and others submitted false claims for partial hospitalization programs (PHP), which are intensive outpatient services. Also, Mazcuri “indiscriminately admitted and readmitted patients into these intensive psychiatric programs—often for years on end—many of whom suffered from severe Alzheimer’s or dementia and were unable to participate in the treatment purportedly provided at the PHPs, and who therefore did not qualify for the services,” the U.S. attorney’s office said. He allegedly dummied medical records and signed false documents to make it seem like PHP patients required and received PHP services. Fifteen other people have been convicted for their roles in the scheme. Visit https://tinyurl.com/ycgoo8nx.

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