Uzma Ehtesham, 52, a Wise, Virginia psychiatrist who defrauded Virginia Medicaid and Medicare by fraudulently billing these programs for services, pleaded guilty to federal healthcare fraud. According to court documents, from 2010 to 2016, Ehtesham devised a scheme to defraud Virginia Medicaid and Medicare by billing for individual office visits when she often saw patients in groups of two to four patients per visit. In addition, Ehtesham billed for extensive, time consuming, and costly office visits when she was conducting brief office visits consisting of five to six minutes and billed for services not supported by required documentation. During the time of the investigation, Ehtesham was seeing in excess of 50 patients per day. Often, prescriptions were written in advance of a scheduled visit by the office staff, placed in patient files, and signed by Ehtesham during the brief patient visit. At times, Ehtesham did not employ any medically certified staff to compile patient’s vital statistics at each visit. Instead, vital statistics were copied from previous patient visits to each new visit information sheet at Ehtesham’s direction. As part of the scheme to defraud, Ehtesham received $500,000 in fraudulently obtained processed from Virginia Medicare and Medicaid. As part of the plea agreement, Ehtesham is required to pay a total of $1,000,000, consisting of restitution, fines, and forfeiture.
