Seven medical practitioners have been arrested in New Jersey for allegedly taking kickbacks worth $200,000 from a diagnostic imaging company in exchange for patient referrals, according to the state attorney general's office.
From 2008 to 2013, six doctors and a chiropractor purportedly made more than 20,000 referrals for MR and PET scans to Diagnostic Imaging Affiliates centers, for which the company was reimbursed millions of dollars from private insurers and the Medicare and Medicaid programs, according to Acting Attorney General John Hoffman.
The New Jersey Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor and its Division of Criminal Justice made the arrests under the auspices of "Operation RayScam," an investigation that began in June when the owner of Diagnostic Imaging Affiliates and alleged leader of the scheme, Rehan Zuberi, was arrested.
Each practitioner was charged with second-degree healthcare claims fraud and third-degree commercial bribery. The investigation is ongoing, the attorney general's office said.
