Little Village doctor pleads guilty to fraud in kickback scheme
Subir Maitra leaves the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago. He plead guilty to fraud today. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune / May 27, 2014)
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Editor's note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Dr. Subir Maitra admitted referring patients to Sacred Heart for procedures that were medically unnecessary. In fact, Maitra pleaded guilty only to referring patients to Sacred Heart in exchange for a kickback. But he did plead guilty to referring patients to Indiana facilities for unnecessary procedures.
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A longtime Little Village doctor pleaded guilty Wednesday to a fraud charge stemming from an elaborate kickback scheme at a now-shuttered Chicago hospital.
Dr. Subir Maitra, 74, became the first person convicted in the alleged scheme at Sacred Heart Hospital on the city's West Side, which according to prosecutors involved everything from unnecessary sedation to penile implants, all fraudulently billed to Medicare and Medicaid.
Maitra also pleaded guilty in a separate case that was originally filed in Indiana accusing him of sending patients from his Little Village clinic to surgery centers in northwest Indiana and fraudulently billing their insurance.
Maitra admitted in a brief plea declaration that he entered into an agreement in 2010 with then-hospital CEO Edward Novak to refer patients to Sacred Heart for procedures.
Maitra in return was paid $2,000 a month in kickbacks that were disguised as payments for teaching medical students at the hospital, according to the plea.
Maitra entered his plea to both charges “blind,” meaning he was not cooperating and there was no agreement with federal prosecutors on what sentence to recommend to U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly.
Prosecutors have said the Sacred Heart scheme, which unfolded with a dramatic raid in the hospital last spring, netted more than $225,000 in cash and at least $2 million in health care program reimbursements.
Novak and numerous other hospital administrators and affiliated doctors have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.
In the Indiana case, which was transferred to U.S. District Court in Chicago this week, Maitra targeted primarily Hispanic patients who had a limited grasp of English and were covered by private insurance, prosecutors said at the time charges were filed.
Maitra routinely had patients from his clinic bused to two northwest Indiana facilities -- Hind Hospital in Hobart and Lakeside Surgery Center in East Chicago -- for urological surgeries, sometimes when the procedures were unnecessary, according to his plea.
At the time of the alleged fraud, Lakeside Surgery Center was owned by Raghuveer Nayak, a fundraiser for former Gov. Rod Blagojevich and an associate of Maitra who was later convicted of secretly paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to physicians to have patients referred to his facilities.
Records show the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation suspended Maitra’s physician’s license last September.
jmeisner@tribune.com
***
A longtime Little Village doctor pleaded guilty Wednesday to a fraud charge stemming from an elaborate kickback scheme at a now-shuttered Chicago hospital.
Dr. Subir Maitra, 74, became the first person convicted in the alleged scheme at Sacred Heart Hospital on the city's West Side, which according to prosecutors involved everything from unnecessary sedation to penile implants, all fraudulently billed to Medicare and Medicaid.
Maitra also pleaded guilty in a separate case that was originally filed in Indiana accusing him of sending patients from his Little Village clinic to surgery centers in northwest Indiana and fraudulently billing their insurance.
Maitra admitted in a brief plea declaration that he entered into an agreement in 2010 with then-hospital CEO Edward Novak to refer patients to Sacred Heart for procedures.
Maitra in return was paid $2,000 a month in kickbacks that were disguised as payments for teaching medical students at the hospital, according to the plea.
Maitra entered his plea to both charges “blind,” meaning he was not cooperating and there was no agreement with federal prosecutors on what sentence to recommend to U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly.
Prosecutors have said the Sacred Heart scheme, which unfolded with a dramatic raid in the hospital last spring, netted more than $225,000 in cash and at least $2 million in health care program reimbursements.
Novak and numerous other hospital administrators and affiliated doctors have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.
In the Indiana case, which was transferred to U.S. District Court in Chicago this week, Maitra targeted primarily Hispanic patients who had a limited grasp of English and were covered by private insurance, prosecutors said at the time charges were filed.
Maitra routinely had patients from his clinic bused to two northwest Indiana facilities -- Hind Hospital in Hobart and Lakeside Surgery Center in East Chicago -- for urological surgeries, sometimes when the procedures were unnecessary, according to his plea.
At the time of the alleged fraud, Lakeside Surgery Center was owned by Raghuveer Nayak, a fundraiser for former Gov. Rod Blagojevich and an associate of Maitra who was later convicted of secretly paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to physicians to have patients referred to his facilities.
Records show the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation suspended Maitra’s physician’s license last September.
jmeisner@tribune.com
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