A Farmington Hills clinic owner, Mohamed Kazkaz, 54, was sentenced to 7 years and 6 months in federal prison after having pleaded guilty to healthcare fraud and money laundering charges. He was also ordered to forfeit approximately $5.3 million as the gross proceeds of his unlawful conduct. During his plea, Kazkaz admitted he owned and controlled Centre HRW, a purported psychotherapy agency in Farmington Hills, Michigan for the purpose of submitting false and fraudulent claims to Medicare, seeking reimbursement for psychotherapy services that were not provided or were otherwise not eligible for reimbursement and whose Medicare identification numbers were procured through kickbacks and bribes.
Kazkaz offered and provided kickbacks and bribes to Ziad Khalel, and others, as an inducement to refer Medicare beneficiaries to Centre for psychotherapy services, even though such services were medically unnecessary and were never rendered. Khalel would require the recruited Medicare beneficiaries to sign blank Centre sign-in sheets. Kazkaz and others, completed the sheets as if the patients had been provided psychotherapy services and relied upon them to support his fraudulent claims to Medicare, through Centre, for psychotherapy services that were never rendered. In furtherance of the scheme, Kazkaz instructed employees to obtain information regarding the Medicare beneficiaries legitimate medical visits and or treatments to ensure Kazkaz did not submit a fraudulent claim for a psychotherapy appointment on the same date the beneficiary had a legitimate appointment with another medical provider. Kazkaz admitted he submitted or caused the submission of approximately $11 million dollars in fraudulent claims to Medicare, and Medicare paid approximately $5.3 million dollars to Kazkaz as a result of the fraudulent submissions.
