Doctor gets 26 months for fraudulent orthotics prescriptions

A former Maumee doctor has been sentenced to 26 months in federal prison for signing more than 11,000 fraudulent prescriptions for orthotic braces that cost Medicare more than $4.47 million.

Ankita Singh, 42, had been found guilty Feb. 29 by a jury of six counts of healthcare fraud and was sentenced Friday by U.S. District Judge Jack Zouhary.

Between 2019 and 2021, Singh worked as an independent contractor for at least two companies to provide “telehealth services” and signed off on durable medical equipment orders sent to her electronically after telemarketers signed up Medicare patients to receive the devices, federal prosecutors said. Singh never actually examined or consulted with any of the roughly 3,000 patients, prosecutors said, and prescribed multiple medical braces for many of the patients.

More than $8 million was billed to Medicare under the scheme and $4,470,931.02 was paid out. Singh, who received fees to conduct the phantom patient consultations, was ordered to pay that amount in restitution along with a $600 special assessment fee. She will have two years of supervision after her prison release.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General and the FBI.