‘The motive ... was money.’ Doctor sentenced in bribe scheme involving Kentucky lab.
A doctor who took more than $400,000 in bribes to send drug-testing samples to a Kentucky laboratory has been sentenced to a year and three months in federal prison.
The sentence also makes Dr. Ghy Asuddin Syed liable for a share of $325,739 in restitution to Medicare.
Syed operated Texas Institute-Pain Management in Baytown, in the Houston area. He admitted he took part in a conspiracy to defraud the government with Uday R. Shah, who owned Pinnacle Laboratories LLC, in Lexington, and labs in Texas and Ohio.
Shah paid Syed $475,992 in bribes between May 2014 and August 2017 so that Syed would send urine samples from patients to be tested for drugs at Shah’s labs, including the one in Lexington, according to court documents.
Shah then billed Medicare, Medicaid and other insurance programs for testing the samples.
Federal law bars doctors from taking kickbacks in order to send business to labs in that way.
The purpose of the law is to prevent increased costs and abusive practices from medical providers making decisions in their interest, rather than basing decisions on medical needs, according to a court document.
The law also protects patients from doctors whose medical judgments might be clouded by improper financial considerations, Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul McCaffrey said in a sentencing memorandum.
The prosecutor said kickbacks from Shah “corrupted” Syed’s medical decisions.
Syed didn’t send any business to Shah’s labs until an employee of Shah, Timothy B. Andrews, approached Syed about the kickback offer, according to the court record.
Syed sent 2,513 tests to Shah’s labs in in 2015, when Shah paid him $325,482.
The next year, when the payments fell to $98,115, Syed sent only 453 tests to Shah’s labs, according to a court document.
“It is clear that the motive behind Dr. Syed’s referrals was money, not quality of care,” McCaffrey said in a memo. “The scheme unfairly enriched Dr. Syed and Shah, as compared to physicians unwilling to accept kickbacks or competitor labs unwilling to pay them.”
Chief U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves sentenced Syed April 5. He must report to prison in July.
Shah and Andrews also pleaded guilty. Reeves sentenced Shah to two years in prison and Andrews to 15 months.
