Judge sentences physician to 1 year in prison for kickback scheme involving unnecessary brain scans

A judge has sentenced a Connecticut ophthalmologist to one year in prison for perpetrating a kickback scheme that involved unnecessary brain scans.

Donald Salzberg, MD, of Avon, also must pay $1.34 million in restitution to Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers. The 69-year-old private practice physician in July 2022 pleaded guilty to the charges, which include conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and receive kickbacks.

Between 2014 and 2019, Salzberg conspired with the principal of an unnamed diagnostics company that performed transcranial doppler scans, the Department of Justice said May 10. The ophthalmologist received kickbacks for ordering hundreds of these medically unnecessary ultrasound examinations, used to measure blood flow in parts of the brain.  

Salzberg and the imaging group would use false diagnoses to order the imaging exams, with the co-conspirator submitting claims to Medicare and other payers for reimbursement. Salzberg would receive bribes of between $100 to $125 for each scan ordered, along with “sham” administrative fees. Altogether, the scam resulted in fraudulent bills of over $3 million.

In 2022, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts said the charge of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud could have carried a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. Violating the anti-kickback statute, meanwhile, came with a sentence of up to five years. Instead, the eye doctor, who has been practicing for nearly 40 years, will spend up to one year and one day in jail with an additional year of supervised release.

Authorities have declined to identify the diagnostics firm and its principal. A DOJ representative said Wednesday that the agency does not name "uncharged co-conspirators."

Editor's Note: This story has been updated to include a response from the DOJ.