Matthew Podolsky, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that Junyi Liu, a/k/a “Jenny,” pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud in connection with a scheme to fraudulently bill insurance providers for acupuncture and physical therapy services that were unnecessary or never performed at medical offices in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. Between 2018 and 2021, LIU, a licensed acupuncturist, operated medical offices (the “Offices”) from which LIU and her partners fraudulently billed Medicare and other insurance providers (collectively, the “Insurance Providers”) for physical therapy and acupuncture services that were not rendered in the manner represented or not rendered at all. During the scheme, LIU partnered with other licensed medical professionals, including licensed physical therapists and at least one other licensed acupuncturist (collectively, the “Partners”).
The Partners’ roles in the scheme typically included: allowing the Offices to use their enrollments with the Insurance Providers to submit to the Insurance Providers materially false and fraudulent claims for reimbursement for physical therapy and acupuncture services that were not rendered in the manner represented or were not rendered at all; creating materially false medical documentation, which stated that certain physical therapy and acupuncture services had been rendered, when such services in fact were not rendered in the manner represented or were not rendered at all; and contributing financing for the Offices, including for the payment of cash kickbacks to patients to induce those patients to provide their insurance information and receive medically unnecessary and/or non-existent services at the Offices. LIU and certain of the Partners also agreed to give kickbacks, including cash and expensive wine, to employees of Insurance Providers to enable the scheme to continue. In furtherance of the scheme, LIU employed receptionists, cashiers, marketers, financial and billing personnel, acupuncturists, massagists, and other personnel. The cashiers distributed tens of thousands of dollars in cash kickbacks to the Paid Patients.
