A Long Island doctor has admitted to ordering medically unnecessary brain scans in a nearly $900,000 fraud scheme that lasted for over six years, prosecutors said Friday.
Dr. Kenneth Fishberger, of East Setauket, pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
The 75-year-old internist, who has been a licensed medical doctor in New York for nearly five decades, was charged in federal court in Boston for his alleged role in the scheme on Oct. 23.
Prosecutors say Fishberger received illegal payments in exchange for ordering transcranial doppler scans, or TCD scans, of patients who were falsely diagnosed. TCD scans are diagnostic tests used to measure blood flow in parts of the brain.
According to investigators, Fishberger conspired with other people — including a salesperson and a principal for a mobile medical diagnostics company — “to order hundreds of medically unnecessary TCD scans in exchange for kickbacks.”
Fishberger would get paid approximately $100 per test, prosecutors said.
The scheme, which lasted from June 2013 until December 2019, resulted in fraudulent bills of over $890,000 to Medicare and private insurance companies.
Fishberger is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 25, 2025. He faces up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.
