Long Island Doctor Pleads Guilty To Healthcare Fraud: DOJ

BOSTON, MA – A doctor from Long Island pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston in connection with receiving kickbacks in exchange for ordering medically unnecessary brain scans for his patients, that resulted in thousands of dollars in bills to Medicare, the U.S. Attorney's office said.

Dr. Kenneth Fishberger, a 75-year-old internist from East Setauket, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud.

The charge of conspiracy to commit health care fraud provides for a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000.

Fishberger is scheduled sentencing on Feb. 25.

His attorney, Zachary Hafer, declined comment.

Fishberger, was a licensed medical doctor in New York for around 47 years, according to prosecutors. Healthgrades shows that his practice was located in Port Jefferson.

From around June 21013 to December 2019, Fishberger conspired with others, including a principal for a mobile medical diagnostics company that performed transcranial Doppler scans, and a salesperson for the company, to order hundreds of medically unnecessary TCD scans in exchange for kickbacks, prosecutors said.

The scans measure blood flow in parts of the brain, and Fishberger and his co-conspirators used false diagnoses to order the unnecessary scans, for which a co-conspirator would submit claims to Medicare and other insurance companies, including private insurance companies, on behalf of the medical diagnostic company for payments, according to prosecutors.

In exchange, Fishberger was paid cash kickbacks of around $100 per test, prosecutors said.

The scheme resulted in fraudulent bills of around $891,978 to Medicare and private insurance companies, according to prosecutors.