A Bolingbrook physician who pleaded guilty in September to illegally prescribing controlled medications and fraudulently billing Medicare was sentenced to 18 months in prison Tuesday.
Sathish Narayanappa Babu, 48, owned Anik Life Sciences Medical Corp., a home-visiting physician’s office that previously operated out of Arlington Heights and then Darien, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois.
Babu’s guilty plea in September was for illegally prescribing oxycodone and other controlled substances, as well as fraudulently billing Medicare for about $500,000, as well as for collecting about $216,000 for services he did not provide, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
In addition to the 18-month sentence, Babu will undergo three years of supervised release and will have to pay about $221,000 in restitution, according to the release announcing the sentence.
Babu agreed to forfeit about $126,000 seized at the time of his arrest, and that will be credited toward the restitution.
Three cars — a 2013 BMW, a 2001 BMW and a 2010 Lexus — were also forfeited, according to the release.
Babu was ordered to begin serving his sentence on May. 13.
Babu could not be reached for comment Tuesday. A number listed for Anik Life Sciences Medical Corp. did not work, and the business appears to no longer have a website.
Babu admitted to scheming to defraud Medicare from late 2011 to early 2014, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
He also admitted to issuing multiple prescriptions for controlled substances to a patient he had never seen or examined between November 2012 and December 2013, according to the release.
That patient was actually an undercover agent, the release state.
“Babu also permitted unlicensed personnel associated with Anik Life Sciences to issue prescriptions to the patient,” according to the release. “During the same period, Babu submitted false claims to Medicare for services provided to the patient that were not rendered by Babu or another licensed medical professional.”
The undercover agent posed as a healthy Medicare-eligible individual seeking to obtain prescription medicine, the release states, and he was visited approximately 10 times by Anik Life Sciences representatives, none of whom were medically licensed.
Babu had other patients as well, according to the release, whom he certified as Medicare-eligible before submitting claims for the care he provided, without regard to whether the services were medically necessary.
He hired three foreign medical school graduates who were not licensed physicians in the U.S. to conduct home visits and advertised them as doctors, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“Babu submitted Medicare claims indicating that he personally conducted the patient visits and provided comprehensive medical evaluations that he did not actually perform,” the release states.
He also prescribed drugs to patients he had never seen or examined, and permitted his staff to fill out prescriptions and order refills, according to the release.
“This crime wasn’t an isolated act,” U.S. District Court Judge John J. Tharp said at sentencing. “It was a calculated, systematic effort to milk Medicare.”
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