A federal grand jury has indicted a Rhode Island man accused of playing a role in an alleged $20-million Medicaid scheme.
Gary Anusavice, of of North Kingston, Rhode Island, has been detained since May 24 and was indicted.
He and Mehran Zamani, of Pound Ridge, New York, were arrested last month. According to U.S. Attorney David Fein, Anusavice and Zamani defrauded the Medicaid program of nearly $21 million in illegal billing.
Anusavice was previously a registered dentist in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, according to the indictment.
In July 1997, he was convicted in Massachusetts for submitting false health care claims and was subject to disciplinary proceedings in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, according to Fein.
In April 1998, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services notified Anusavice that he was was barred from participating in Medicare and state health care programs, including Medicaid, and he would not be allows to submit claims or cause claims to be submitted for payment from the federal Medicaid program, according to Fein.
In November 2005, Anusavice surrendered his right to practice dentistry in Rhode Island for 18 months, and the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Dentistry permanently revoked his license to practice dentistry in Massachusetts in 2006.
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The indictment alleges that, from 2009 to April 2011, Anusavice owned and operated Landmark Dental in West Haven, Dental Group of Connecticut in Trumbull, and Dental Group of Stamford, but used a licensed dentist, who is referred to in the indictment as “Co-Conspirator #1”, to act as the nominal head of the dental clinics.
The indictment does not state whether Zamani is the person referred to as "“Co-Conspirator #1.”
Federal officials said Co-Conspirator #1 provided false Medicaid Provider Enrollment Applications to DSS and received nearly $21 million in Medicaid reimbursements from the Connecticut Medicaid program and Anusavice received more than $3 million in payments from the clinics.
Federal officials said Anusavice was involved in reviewing patient charts, suggesting dental procedures to be performed, reviewing billing records, reviewing income reports, interviewing and hiring dentists, and providing overall management direction to the offices.
The indictment charges Anusavice with conspiring with others to fraudulently obtain money from the Connecticut Medicaid program by submitting Medicaid claims and concealing and misrepresenting his prior disciplinary and criminal history, his ownership interest in the dental clinics, and his exclusion from the Medicaid program. This charge carries a maximum term of imprisonment of five years.
The indictment also charges Anusavice with one count of health care fraud, four counts of making false statements involving the Medicaid Program and one count of concealment and failure to disclose an event affecting the Medicaid Program.
The indictment also seeks the forfeiture of Anusavice’s 8,1745-sqaure-foot Rhode Island home, claiming Anusavice purchased it with money illegally obtained as part of the alleged fraud, as well as his 2008 Mercedes and $91,700 in cash that was seized at the time of his arrest.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are investigating.
Officials said last month that more arrests are expected.
