Dr. Vasso G Godiali, a 56 year old Bay City surgeon has been charged for running a multimillion-dollar healthcare fraud by a federal grand jury. As per the indictment made on 26th June, Federal jury charged Dr. Godiali for 5 counts of money laundering and 2 counts of health care fraud.
With the help of Special Agents of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services together with the FBI officials, the case was investigated for uncovering the truth behind this healthcare scam.
Dr. Godiali is a vascular surgeon and practices at Bay City Vascular. As per the charges, Dr. Godiali was involved in scamming Blue cross shield, Medicare and Medicaid of Michigan since 2009. He defrauded these companies till 2015 by submitting fake claims.
The charges also state that he submitted the claims for operative procedures that he did not perform on his patients. These additional procedures were falsely added to the claims for reimbursements that were not legal. For making his claims seem legit, Vasso noted removal of fractured stents that were never performed.
In 2009, Vasso received $73,896 by Medicare for placing 41 vascular stents. Following the success of his scam, doctor increased the number of stents to earn more from Medicare. In 2013 alone, he submitted the claims for placing 250 stents. For this, he received $792,789 from Medicare. In 2014, the reports increased to 245 stents getting him $713,356.11 from Medicare.
This was not it. Godiali also reported for fake blood clots. For removing blood clots, Godiali was paid $8,956.68 in 2010. He kept increasing the number of claims and in 2014, the blood clot removal claims alone marked for 815 number. Godiali was paid $1.1 million by Medicare.
Apart from this, Godiali used 6 corporations for laundering money which was noted to be about $49 million as per the indictment. He was involved in funding various investment accounts opened at different financial institutions.
Matthew Schneider, the U.S. Attorney said, “This is a large, significant and important prosecution. Health care fraud schemes, such as the one alleged to have been committed by Dr. Godiali, divert millions of dollars from public programs intended to help those in need for the sole purpose of lining the pockets of greedy doctors. I salute Attorney General Dana Nessel and her staff, along with the entire law enforcement team that laboured so tirelessly on this case. The work that culminated in today’s indictment demonstrates cooperation and teamwork at its best.”
The office of US attorney has filed a civil lawsuit and has requested for the forfeiting of around $39.9 million from the accounts owned and controlled by dr. Godiali.