A chiropractor from New Jersey faces up to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to accepting bribes for patient referrals to an imaging center at the middle of a case officials have called Operation RayScam.
Dr. Alexander Dimeo pleaded guilty to accepting illegal kickbacks in exchange for sending his patients to other medical practices and imaging centers. He admitted that between 2009 and 2015, he received approximately $254,500 for patient referrals.
In addition to facing prison time, Dimeo must pay an antimoney-laundering penalty of $250,000, as well as restitution for state taxes. He is scheduled to be sentenced in August.
Dimeo was one of a number of healthcare providers ensnared in Operation RayScam, an investigation into a New Jersey imaging company run by Rehan Zuberi. Zuberi in May 2015 pleaded guilty to paying millions of dollars to referring physicians for Medicare referrals, and is awaiting sentencing. Authorities have recommended that he receive a 10-year prison sentence.
Dimeo admitted that the money he received included approximately $27,000 in kickbacks for patients he referred to MRI centers owned by Zuberi, particularly Medical and Molecular Imaging of Wayne, NJ. Other payments were made to operators of pain management clinics.
State officials are still prosecuting cases against other physicians who referred patients to Zuberi's company.
