Dr. Dipak Desai started Endoscopy Center in 1980 and built a small medical empire in the desert of Southern Nevada.

UPDATED:

NRI Dr. Dipak Desai who Hepatitis C outbreak, sentenced 71 months in prison

Las Vegas, Nevada, July 10, 2015
Sudesh Sharma/ NRIpress-Club

After 6-7 years of silence, about the 2007 hepatitis C outbreak at Dr. Dipak Desai’s busy endoscopy center, U.S. District Judge Larry Hicks in Reno announced sentence 71 months in prison, ordered him to pay $2.2 million in restitution to the health insurance agencies defrauded in the scheme and to forfeit $2.2 million to the government.

Last Thursday, Dr. Dipak Desai spoke in an emotional voice publicly:  “I’m sorry sir…..to  Senior U.S. District Judge Larry Hicks in Reno. Hicks credited Desai for roughly 30 months behind bars since he was criminally charged in state courts.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Crane Pomerantz called Desai:

·        A “despicable human being” who has shown an “utter lack of remorse driven in his medical practice by “wanton, crass greed.”

·        He was living the American dream and it wasn’t enough and  “No amount of money has been enough for this defendant.”

Desai, a gastroenterologist, gave up his license in 2008 after health officials disclosed the 2007 hepatitis C outbreak.

Read in Full Coverage:

Former Owner of Las Vegas Endoscopy Center, Dipak Desai M.D., Pleads Guilty to Federal Health Care Fraud Charges

U.S. Attorney’s Office/ District of Nevada

April 02, 2015  

 LAS VEGAS, NV—Dr. Dipak Desai, the former owner of a defunct Nevada endoscopy center, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to defraud Medicare, Medicaid and other private health insurance companies by inflating and overcharging for anesthesia services it provided, announced U.S. Attorney Daniel G. Bogden for the District of Nevada.

“Dr. Desai intentionally defrauded the federal health care system for his own personal enrichment,” said U.S. Attorney Bogden. “He has finally taken responsibility for his conduct. We are hopeful this closes a long and sordid chapter of harm caused to the people and businesses of Nevada.”

Desai, 65, of Las Vegas, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Larry R. Hicks to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, one count of health care fraud, and agreed to the forfeiture of property of up to approximately $2.2 million. Desai is scheduled to be sentenced on July 9, 2015, and faces a maximum of five years in prison on the conspiracy count, 10 years in prison on the health care fraud count, and maximum fines of $250,000 on each count.

Last July, Desai’s co-defendant and chief operating office of the endoscopy center, Tonya Rushing, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, and is scheduled to be sentenced on May 4, 2015.

According to Desai’s guilty plea agreement, between about January 2005 and February 2008, Desai and Rushing conspired to overcharge Medicare, Medicaid, and other private health insurance companies at the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada by significantly overstating the amount of time the certified registered nurse anesthetists spent with patients on a given procedure. Desai and Rushing created a separate company, Healthcare Business Solutions, owned by Rushing, to handle the billing for the anesthesia services. This company received approximately nine percent of all money collected for anesthesia services rendered at the endoscopy center. Desai and Rushing imposed intense pressure on the endoscopy center employees to schedule and treat as many patients as possible in a day, and instructed the nurse anesthetists to overstate in their records the amount of time they spent on the anesthesia procedures. Desai and Rushing also instructed the office staff to rely on the false anesthesia records when preparing the claims for reimbursement which were sent to Medicare, Medicaid and the insurance companies. The plea agreement states that the parties agreed that the amount of loss to the victims is approximately $2.2 million.

This case was investigated by the FBI, Office of the Nevada Attorney General, Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, Food and Drug Administration Office of Criminal Investigations, and the United States Postal Inspection Service, and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Crane M. Pomerantz and Mark N. Kemberling, who was designated as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney on this case and is Chief Deputy Nevada Attorney General.

According to a recent report by the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, for every dollar the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services have spent fighting health care fraud, they have returned an average of nearly eight dollars to the U.S. Treasury, the Medicare Trust Fund and others.

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Indian-origin doctor gets prison in US for health insurance fraud

Houston, July 11, 2015: An Indian-origin doctor has been sentenced to 71 months in a federal prison and ordered to repay over $2.2 million for health insurance fraud, the Federal Bureau of investigation announced Friday.

Dipak Desai, 65, who ran an endoscopy centre, overcharged the US health insurance systems for senior citizens and for the poor as well as private health insurers for providing anesthesia services, according to Daniel G. Bogden the Nevada federal prosecutor.

The Las Vegas doctor, who had pleaded guilty to conspiracy and health care fraud, was sentenced by federal Judge Larry R. Hicks. Desai.

"Dr. Desai intentionally defrauded the federal health care system for his own personal enrichment," Bogden said. "We are hopeful this closes a long and sordid chapter of harm caused to the people and businesses of Nevada."

An FBI press release said that Desai and his endoscopy company's chief operating officer Tonya Rushing "imposed intense pressure on the endoscopy center employees to schedule and treat as many patients as possible in a day, and instructed the nurse anesthetists to overstate in their records the amount of time they spent on the anesthesia procedures."

Rushing was earlier sentenced to a year in jail for her role in the scam……IANS

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• The local authorities raided six valley medical offices, seizing mountains of patient records and other paperwork as part of a joint criminal investigation into the clinic at the center of a hepatitis C outbreak.
  
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Las Vegas, Nevada, March 10, 2008
Navtej Singh

The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that an outbreak of hepatitis C at a Nevada clinic may represent "the tip of an iceberg" of safety problems at clinics around the country. Nearly 40,000 residents in Southern Nevada may have been exposed to several viruses through practices at a local clinic- Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada. Dr. Dipak Desai is 65 percent owner of the center, according to Las Vegas city business license records.

Investigators believe they became infected when workers used contaminated syringes and vials when injecting patients with medication.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shut down the clinic but later on some clinics allowed to reopen on an administrative or limited basis. Dr. Dipak Desai agreed to stop doing medical work while an investigation is conducted.

On Monday, Dr. Dipak Desai releases Statement about Hepatitis C Investigation:

"As a longtime resident of Southern Nevada, I share our community's sorrow and concern for those who have been affected by this situation. I understand that many have questions about the allegations which have been levied against me and the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada. While I wish I were allowed to answer those questions, I am unfortunately unable to do so at this time on the advice of legal counsel. These unfounded allegations will be addressed in a court of law, when facts have been presented and substantiated. I look forward to that day, when I will be afforded the right to due process to which we are all entitled as Americans," wrote Dr. Desai.

Dr. Dipak Desai, purchased space for an open letter in the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Sunday in which he expressed "my deepest sympathy to all our patients and their families for the fear and uncertainty that naturally arises from this situation."

Desai offered no apology but said a foundation was being set up to cover testing costs. He also defended practices at his clinic, which performs colonoscopies.

"The evidence does not support that syringes or needles were ever reused from patient to patient at the center," Desai wrote.

About Dr. Dipak Desai:

Dr. Dipak Desai started Endoscopy Center in 1980 and built a small medical empire in the desert of Southern Nevada.

Dr. Dipak Desai completed his medical residency at Catholic Medical Center in New York. He hails from Gujarat and graduated from medical school at Gujarat University in India

In 2004, he and his wife bought house for $3.4 million, four-bedroom, about 9000-square-foot house in Red Rock Country Club.

In a 1992 Review-Journal story, he said, "I wasn't born rich, and sometimes you have to give something back to the society in which you live." He provided free treatment to striking Frontier Hotel workers

According to local media, he is generous political campaign donor and as a registered Republican has given nearly $25,000 to federal candidates and committees going back to 1997. As a good businessman, he has given to Democrats and Republicans alike, even opponents in the same race.

His center gave $25,000 in to the Keep Our Doctors In Nevada tort-reform ballot initiative in 2004 and also donated funds to several candidates including Gov. Jim Gibbons and failed Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jim Gibson in 2006

In these years, he was becoming popular and and attend most of the political events.

 

Dipak Desai

Doctor owns 65 percent of Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada

• In February 2008, 40,000 people were contacted that they may have been exposed to HIV and hepatitis B and C after having surgical procedures at the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada, (700 Shadow Lane). Since then, 6 other centers have shut down. Those centers are:
  the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada, the Desert Shadow Endoscopy Center, the Gastroenterology Center of Nevada (three locations), and the Spanish Hills Surgical Center.

  Federal health officials called it the largest health-related notification in U.S. history. Patients who had visited the center between between March 2004 and Jan. 11, 2008, are advised to be tested for the diseases.