Indian-American doctor couple convicted of medical fraud

Reportedly, the couple, Dr. Arun Sharma and Dr. Kiran Sharma, has been sentenced to 15 years and 8 years of imprisonment respectively, for their alleged involvement in cheating the U.S. insurance firms.

The Texas-based doctor couple was involved in fraudulent activities since the past 10 years and has earned nearly $43 million in cash by duping the medical insurance companies.

“This couple has been stealing from the insurance company for ten long years with a very simple plan. This couple used to run multiple medical clinics under the name Allergy, Asthma, Arthritis Pain Center,” said a source.

“The wife, Kiran Sharma used to do the allergy practice and they would sign patient procedure plans and other bills falsely claiming that the patients have been treated with injections, thus claiming the price of these injections from insurance companies.” the source informed.

They had employed college graduates to fill out fabricated information about patients.

Scam money was deposited in various accounts
The guilty doctor couple had hidden their wrong-earnings very carefully and the money was deposited in a number of accounts, all of which have been detected.

Apart from that Dr. Arun and Kiran Sharma had a $700,000 home in the Texas City and $800,000 stacked in two safe deposits.

They pleaded guilty in April 2010 and while the wife has started with her 8-year-jail term, Arun, too, is slated to start his term soon.

“The Indian community feels ashamed that such people are living who can cheat and fraud in spite o being doctors and earning a good living,” added an Indian-origin U.S. citizen, who did not want to be revealed.

More Indian-origin doctors involved in frauds in US
In another $225 million Medicare fraud case, nearly six Indian-American doctors have been convicted among many U.S. doctors involved.

The biggest medical fraud unearthed so far, 111 people were charged from more than nine U.S. cities in crimes, including “conspiracy to defraud Medicare, criminal false claims, money laundering and aggravated identify theft.”

"With this take-down, we have identified and shut down large-scale fraud schemes operating throughout the country. This is the largest federal health care fraud take-down in our nation's history," said Attorney General Eric Holder.

The Medicare program, a government insurance cover that has been provided to all adults who are 65 and above, has been wrongly used by these doctors for their own selfish interests.