A Connecticut doctor was sentenced in federal court in Boston for receiving kickbacks in exchange for ordering medically unnecessary brain scans. Dr. Donald Salzberg, 69 of Avon, Conn., was sentenced to one year and one day in prison, to be followed by one year of supervised release. Salzberg was also ordered to pay $1.34 million in restitution to Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers. Salzberg, a licensed medical doctor in the State of Connecticut for nearly 40 years, owned and operated Donald J. Salzberg, MD, an ophthalmology practice in West Hartford, Conn. From 2014 through 2019, Salzberg conspired with a principal for a medical diagnostics company that performed transcranial doppler (TCD) scans — brain scans that measure blood flow in parts of the brain — to order hundreds of medically unnecessary TCD scans in exchange for kickbacks. Salzberg and his co-conspirator used false patient diagnoses to order the unnecessary brain scans, for which the co-conspirator would submit claims to Medicare and other insurance companies on behalf of the medical diagnostic company for payment. In exchange, Salzberg was paid cash kickbacks of $100 to $125 per test that he ordered, as well as sham administrative services fees. The scheme resulted in fraudulent bills of over $3 million to Medicare and private insurance companies.
