The owner and sole medical provider of a New Jersey medical practice was sentenced to 35 months in prison for orchestrating a healthcare fraud scheme causing over $1.9 million in insurance reimbursements for false claims. Dr. Fazal Panezai, 76, who owned and operated Matawan-Aberdeen Heart & Medical Center, for years submitted false claims to at least six health insurance benefit programs for office visits that either never occurred or did not take place for the length of time that he claimed. For example, Panezai submitted claims for office visits lasting approximately 1,675 minutes (approximately 27.9 hours) for one day’s worth of office visits on May 27, 2022. He billed health insurance providers over $80,000 for office visits when he was out of the country and not conducting any office visits. He also submitted claims for office visits when patients only picked up a prescription for a controlled substance from the front desk and never met with him. The false claims caused insurance plans to issue reimbursement checks to the center. Panezai kept the illicit profits, which totaled more than $1.9 million. In addition to the prison term, he was sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution of $1.95 million.
