A doctor who practiced in Great Neck was sentenced to 30 months in prison after billing Medicare for millions of dollars worth of procedures that were never conducted, federal prosecutors said Thursday.
In March 2022 Morris Barnard, 59, pleaded guilty to submitting billings to Medicare for gastroenterological and colonoscopy procedures that were not conducted from October 2015 to February 2020. The total cost of billings exceeded $3 million, of which Medicare reimbursed approximately $1.4 million worth of false claims, officials said.
The fraudulent procedures were rendered to disabled individuals living in residential group homes, according to the billings.
“Today, Dr. Barnard learned the consequences for his greed-driven scheme in which he took advantage of patients who are disabled and living in residential group homes by falsely billing Medicare for medical procedures on them that he never actually performed,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace said.
“Health care professionals who fraudulently bill Medicare for services never actually provided divert taxpayer funding meant to pay for medically necessary services for people enrolled in Medicare,” Susan Frisco, acting special agent in charge, said.
U.S. District Judge Gary R. Brown ordered a restitution of more than $1.4 million to Medicare as a result of the organization’s reimbursements, officials said.
“As the defendant learned today, defrauding Medicare does not pay – it has consequences,” FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Michael J. Driscoll said.
