Therapy Clinic Offered Cash Kickbacks, Free Transportation PT Clinic Employees Face 10 Years in Medicare Fraud Case

Three employees of a Brooklyn-area physical therapy establishment each pleaded guilty in June to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud in a case involving $3.4 million in charges billed to Medicare.

In court documents, authorities alleged that Dmitry Shteyman, 36, Aleksey Shteyman, 42, and Maxsim Shvedkin, 39, were involved in a scheme to pay cash kickbacks to Medicare beneficiaries who visited the physical therapy clinic, known as Solstice Wellness Center.  In addition, beneficiaries allegedly were transported to and from Solstice purportedly to receive the unnecessary physicians’ services, physical therapy and diagnostic tests.  Free transportation or transportation provided for less than market rates can be ruled as an inducement.

In plea hearings, Dmitry and Aleksey Shteyman and Maxsim Shvedkin admitted that they paid kickbacks to the beneficiaries so that Medicare could be billed for services and diagnostic tests that were not medically necessary.

Each defendant faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Other employees and clinic operators also were involved.  Ilya Gershkovich, Evgeny Gil, Yefim Kornfeld, Valentina Mushinskaya, Shelya Pinskaya and Vladimir Rubin have been charged and are scheduled for trial in October 2011.
 The guilty pleas were announced by Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Loretta E. Lynch for the Eastern District of New York and Special Agent-in-Charge Thomas O’Donnell of the HHS-Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG).

The case was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, supervised by the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.

Since their inception in March 2007, Strike Force operations in nine cities have charged more than 1,000 defendants who collectively have falsely billed the Medicare program for more than $2.3 billion.  In addition, the HHS Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the HHS-OIG, are taking steps to increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers.