A New York operations manager was charged in federal court in Boston for allegedly conspiring to offer and pay kickbacks to doctors in exchange for ordering medically unnecessary brain scans. Timothy Doyle, 45, of Selden, NY was charged and has agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the anti-kickback statute. According to the charging documents, from at least June 2013 through at least September 2020, Doyle allegedly conspired with others, including two managers for a mobile medical diagnostics company that performed transcranial doppler (TCD) scans, to enter into kickback agreements with various doctors. TCD scans are brain scans that measure blood flow in parts of the brain.
It is alleged that Doyle and his co-conspirators agreed to offer and pay doctors kickbacks, some in cash and others by check, based on the number of TCD ultrasounds the doctors ordered. Doyle and his co-conspirators allegedly created purported rental and administrative service agreements, which on paper made it appear as if doctors were compensated for the TCD company’s use of space and administrative resources of the ordering doctor’s practice based on fair market value and not based on the volume or value of referrals. It is also alleged that these agreements were shams that hid the true nature of the arrangement of paying per test. According to the charging documents, the scheme resulted in fraudulent bills of approximately $70.6 million to Medicare.
