WASHINGTON — A Michigan vascular surgeon has been sentenced after entering a plea agreement for healthcare fraud.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) says Vasso Godiali had been defrauding insurance companies – Medicaid and Medicare among them – since 2009.
We’re told Godiali billed insurers for stent procedures and other services that never happened, as well as falsifying medical records to validate those claims.
The DOJ says Godiali entered a plea deal on Feb. 8, agreeing to pay $19.5 million in restitution to insurers and as much as $43,419,000 to the U.S. government in lieu of standing trial related to the case.
Additionally, Godiali was spend 80 months – a little more than six and a half years – behind bars, according to the DOJ.
“We will not tolerate the use of federal health care programs as a source of personal enrichment,” says DOJ Civil Division Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton. “Today’s settlement demonstrates our commitment to protecting the integrity of those programs and the taxpayer funds used to support them.”
Federal officials add Godiali has also forfeited $39.9 million from his accounts, $7.5 million of which will be forwarded to his wife per an agreement with the U.S. government.
