Riverhead physician charged with conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud in kickback scheme

A Riverhead family physician is facing a federal felony charge in connection with a scheme to receive kickbacks for ordering hundreds of medically unnecessary brain scans.

Dr. Vishnudat Seodat, 75, of Mattituck, has entered a plea agreement  with federal prosecutors in Boston, Massachusetts, admitting that he conspired with the manager of a diagnostic imaging company to commit health care fraud, in violation of federal criminal law.  

Seodat admitted in the plea agreement that between June 2013 and June 2019, he falsified patient diagnoses when ordering medically unnecessary brain ultrasound tests in exchange for cash kickbacks from the imaging company of $100 per test, so that federal health care programs, including Medicare would pay for the tests.

Seodat signed 521 prescriptions and orders for the ultrasound tests, called transcranial Doppler ultrasounds, in which he or the co-conspirator diagnostic imaging company indicated that a given patient had a medical condition requiring the ultrasound test, even though the doctor had not and did not diagnose the patients with it, according to the plea agreement. 

Using these prescriptions and orders, the diagnostics company fraudulently bill Medicare and private insurance companies approximately $1,005,455, according to the document, and was paid approximately $347,165 for these fraudulent claims. In total, Seodat received approximately $52,100 in cash kickback payments from the company or the company manager.

Seodat is charged with and has agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy under § 1349 of Title 18 of the U.S. Code, a felony, according to the plea agreement, which Seodat signed on Oct. 22.

The criminal information, which sets forth the charge, and the plea agreement were filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts on Dec. 2. 

A “Waiver of Indictment and Plea to Information” hearing is scheduled in the Boston courthouse tomorrow morning. Sentencing by the court will take place at a later date.

The charge of conspiracy to commit health care fraud provides for a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.

In Seodat’s plea agreement, the U.S. attorney agreed to recommend: “incarceration at the low end of the guidelines sentencing range;” a fine consistent with the guidelines sentencing range; 12 months of supervised release; a mandatory special assessment of $100; restitution of $347,165; and forfeiture of $52,100, the amount equal to the proceeds Seodat derived from the kickback scheme.

He is represented by Boston defense attorney Zachary Hafer, who declined comment for this article.

Seodat, an M.D., was licensed to practice medicine in New York State in July 1988. He has practiced in Riverhead for most of the time since and has cared for hundreds of patients in the community.

One of them, Danielle Leonette, wrote a letter of support to the judge in Seodat’s case. She said she has been a patient of Seodat’s for 29 years and told the court in her letter: “He was angel here on earth during a very dark period of my life. He took the time and always offered a listening ear and reassurance. I would leave my appointments with him feeling restored and confident. He save my life.” In the letter to the judge, which was filed in the online case docket, Leonette asked the court for leniency. “I ask that you please take his life of good work and positive impact into consideration during this process.” She was one of several people who posted words of support for the doctor on a Dec. 2 social media post by the FBI, announcing the charge.

A second Long Island physician, internist Kenneth Fishberger, 75, of East Setauket  was charged on Oct. 23 with conspiracy in connection with false diagnoses for the same brain scans in concert with the same diagnostics company. Fishberger also admitted to making the false diagnoses and signing orders for the tests in exchange for cash kickbacks of $100 each. The false diagnoses and claims resulted in fraudulent bills of approximately $891,978 to Medicare and private insurance companies. Fishberger received a total of about $48,000 in cash kickbacks, according to his plea agreement with federal prosecutors.

On Dec. 3, Timothy Doyle, 45, of Selden, an operations manager for the mobile diagnostic imaging company Seodat and Fishberger admit to conspiring with in the kickback scheme, was charged with and agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the anti-kickback statute. A plea hearing has not yet been scheduled by the Court.

According to the charging documents, from at least June 2013 through at least September 2020, Doyle allegedly conspired with others, including two managers for the mobile medical diagnostics company to enter into kickback agreements with various doctors. The scheme resulted in fraudulent bills of approximately $70.6 million to Medicare, according to the charges.

Prosecutors in the Doyle case have agreed to recommend 43 months incarceration, plus a fine within the sentencing guidelines, 12 months of supervised release, an assessment of $100, restitution, jointly with others, of more than $27 million, and forfeiture in the amount of $1,102,795.96, which Doyle agreed is the amount of proceeds he derived from the scheme. 

Prosecutors have not identified the mobile medical diagnostics company that employed the managers involved in the kickbacks scheme.