A Connecticut doctor pleaded guilty now in federal court docket in Boston to acquiring kickbacks in exchange for buying medically pointless mind scans.

In accordance to a information launch from the U.S. Attorney’s Business office for the District of Massachusetts, Donald Salzberg, MD, 67, of Avon, Conn., pleaded guilty just before U.S. Senior District Court docket Choose Douglas P. Woodlock to one particular depend of conspiracy to commit health and fitness treatment fraud and one count of conspiracy to receive kickbacks.

The courtroom has still to established a day for a sentencing listening to. Salzberg was billed by an Data on May well 23.

Salzberg, who for 36 years has been a accredited ophthalmologist in Connecticut, owned and operated Donald J. Salzberg, MD, an ophthalmology apply in West Hartford, Conn.

According to federal authorities, from 2014 via 2019, Salzberg conspired with a principal for a health care diagnostics enterprise that carried out transcranial doppler (TCD) scans – mind scans that measure blood circulation in parts of the mind – to purchase hundreds of medically unnecessary TCD scans in exchange for kickbacks.

Salzberg, whose follow is in West Hartford, Conn., made use of false affected person diagnoses to get the brain scans and the other particular person would post promises to Medicare and other coverage businesses for payment, prosecutors said.

Salzberg was paid out hard cash kickbacks of $100 to $125 for just about every take a look at that he purchased, as well as sham administrative providers costs. Extra than $3 million in fraudulent promises were being submitted to Medicare and personal insurance policy companies, in accordance to federal authorities.

The U.S. attorney’s office environment in Boston pointed out that charge of conspiracy to commit wellness care fraud provides for a sentence of up to 10 many years in prison, three yrs of supervised release and a wonderful of up to $250,000. The charge of conspiracy to violate the anti-kickback statute delivers for a sentence of up to five many years in jail, three a long time of supervised launch and a wonderful of up to $250,000.

Sentences are imposed by a federal district court docket choose based mostly on the U.S. Sentencing Rules and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a legal scenario.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Rachel Y. Hemani and…