The owner of a New Jersey imaging facility at the center of payment-for-patients scheme has been sentenced to almost four years in prison and a $2 million fine.
Radiologist Dr. Ashokkumar Babaria previously pleaded guilty in 2012 to charges that he fraudulently paid referring physicians for patient referrals to his center, Orange Community MRI, in violation of federal antikickback statutes. Federal investigators claimed that the center generated $2 million in revenue for CT, MRI, ultrasound, and other scans for which Orange paid kickbacks.
Officials charged that Babaria negotiated, approved, and paid kickbacks to doctors for each imaging scan they referred, and provided cash to his employees to do the same. Federal investigators raided the center in December 2011 and also rounded up a number physicians who referred patients to the center.
Babaria was sentenced to 46 months in prison and was ordered to pay $2 million. He must serve three years of supervised release after leaving prison.
So far, 17 individuals have been convicted in the case, with 15 pleading guilty and two convicted at trial.
