Chicago – An Indian American physician in Chicago is headed to prison on September 5 for two years after being convicted for defrauding a Medicare insurance provider, according to the court documents.
“On March 13, 2012, the jury returned a verdict of guilty against defendant Jaswinder Rai Chhibber,” noted the court document, finding him guilty of five counts of healthcare fraud and four counts of making false statements involving a health care benefits program, after a jury trial that began on March 1. The jury, however, found him not guilty of seven additional counts.
Jaswinder Rai Chhibber, 50, operated a medical clinic and was convicted for defrauding medicare insurance provider BlueCross BlueShield by submitting false insurance claims for medically unnecessary tests he ordered for patients and using false diagnosis codes to justify those tests.
He ran the healthcare fraud between 2007 and July 2010 and the evidence at the trial revealed that Chhibber administered echocardiograms, nerve conduction studies, doppler exams and abdominal ultrasounds for an unusually high percentage of his patients.
Two undercover federal agents, who had posed as patients, also testified against him during the trial and the evidence showed that Chhibber ordered unnecessary tests, falsified records, and used false diagnosis codes on insurance claim forms for at least five patients who testified at the trial.
Chhibber was ordered to begin serving his prison term on September 5 by US District Judge Suzanne Conlon and pay a $15,000 fine. (IATNS)