Dr. Rajashakher Reddy, founder of teleradiology services provider Reddy Solutions (RSI), has been sentenced to four years and six months in prison for his conviction on charges of healthcare fraud, wire fraud, and mail fraud.
In July, Reddy was found guilty after a two-week trial of 29 counts of fraud related to "ghosting" activities, or allowing radiology reports to be approved without actually reviewing the images. At trial, computer records showed that while Reddy signed more than 70,000 radiology reports in eight months, he only viewed digital images of the studies fewer than 5,900 times during those months, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia.
In a statement, U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said that Reddy "fraudulently cut corners at the expense of the hospitals he worked for and the patients who were being treated. The defendant produced tens of thousands of reports claiming to include his medical findings and diagnoses based on radiology studies that had been performed, but where all those interpretations had been performed by nonqualified medical assistants. We hope that today's sentence helps protect the public from such an egregious breach of trust."
In addition to his prison term, Reddy was fined $15,000 and was ordered to pay $919,000 in restitution. Reddy will also have three years of supervised release at the end of his term.
