Dr. Rajashakher Reddy, founder of teleradiology services provider Reddy Solutions (RSI), has been found guilty of 29 counts of fraud related to "ghosting" activities -- allowing radiology reports to be approved without actually reviewing the images.
Reddy was found guilty of perpetrating a scheme to defraud various hospitals, signing and submitting tens of thousands of radiology reports without reviewing many of the x-rays, mammograms, CT scans, and other exams that were the subject of the reports, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia.
Following a six-day trial and one day of deliberation, a federal district court jury on July 7 found Reddy guilty of 20 counts of wire fraud, five counts of mail fraud, four counts of health care fraud, and one count of obstruction of justice. He was acquitted of five counts of wire fraud.
RSI, which was renamed as Prodigy Healthcare in January, did not immediately return a call from AuntMinnie.com seeking comment on Reddy's convictions.
Evidence presented at trial showed that Reddy signed and submitted thousands of reports in his name from May 2007 through January 2008 without reviewing the films that were the subject of the reports. Instead, Reddy had radiology practitioner assistants (RPAs) review the studies and prepare the reports, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
"In some cases, Reddy directed the RSI staff to simply sign for him, and transmit the report as if he had prepared it," the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement. "In other cases, Reddy accessed the system solely for the purpose of signing and submitting the reports. Either way, the majority of the time he never looked at and analyzed the underlying films, and the reports signed by him therefore did not bear his medical conclusions or those of any other doctor."
Computer records showed that while Reddy signed more than 70,000 radiology reports in eight months, he viewed digital images of the studies less than 5,900 times. The majority of practitioners who actually viewed the studies were RPAs, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The evidence also included dozens of reports supposedly signed by Reddy when he was in fact traveling on airplanes without Internet access. Using Reddy's electronic password at his direction, other employees signed these reports, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
In addition, the evidence revealed that Reddy fraudulently passed off these reports prepared by nonphysician assistants thousands of times to several hospitals, mainly involving x-rays but also including CT, mammography, and ultrasound studies, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Reddy was also convicted of one count of obstruction of justice. After a government subpoena to RSI demanded computer records that were supposed to track which users accessed what images and when, Reddy instructed employees to destroy those records and, instead, create new fabricated records to provide to the government. These fabricated records falsely stated that Reddy had been viewing images instead of the assistants.
"Witnesses at the trial explained how they were instructed by Reddy to make these fabrications and to then produce the false records to the government in response to the subpoena," according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office. "The evidence at trial also showed that Reddy disposed of computer equipment requested by the government, and asked employees to lie to investigators."
Some of the hospitals and other facilities that may have received fraudulent reports include Mountain Lakes Medical Center in Clayton, GA; Upson Regional Medical Center in Thomaston, GA; Bullock County Hospital in Union Springs, AL; Crenshaw Community Hospital in Lucerne, AL; Athens-Limestone Hospital in Athens, AL; and Columbus Diagnostic Centers in Columbus, GA.
A sentencing date has not yet been set. Reddy could receive a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 for each of the 32 fraud and obstruction counts of which he was convicted.
Special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Health and Human Services investigated the case. Reddy was indicted on the charges by a federal grand jury in November 2009.
