Faces prison term and quarter-million dollar fine.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: New Jersey physician Dr. Yash Khanna pleaded guilty on Monday to charges of accepting kickbacks and failing to file tax returns for three years.
According to the Department of Justice, Khanna, 72, was a practitioner of family medicine in East Orange, New Jersey, at his clinic called Family Medicine and Pediatrics, LLC. Close to the clinic is the Orange Community MRI (OCM) LLC, a clinic which conducts MRIs and other medical imaging tests for patients. Between 2009 and 2011, Khanna received kickbacks from OCM for referring his own patients to that clinic.
Documents indicate that Khanna met with representatives from OCM at least twice in 2011 – on October 4 and November 10 – to receive envelopes that contained cash payments for his referrals. These envelopes contained $360 and $660, respectively. The documents also quote Khanna as saying he was unable to keep count on how many patients he was referring, despite agreeing to do so earlier. OCM was an approved provider of Medicare and Medicaid.
In court, Khanna admitted to receiving other kickbacks as well, in addition to the two outlined in court documents. He was charged with six counts of conspiracy to violate the federal health care anti-kickback statute, solicitation and receiving more than $10,000 in illegal cash kickbacks, and failing to file income tax returns from 2008-2010.
The returns that Khanna withheld from the IRS totaled just under $1 million — $381,000 in 2008, $400,000 in 2009, and $214,000 in 2010. Additionally, he never requested extensions for any of the unfiled returns. Now, he is facing many years in prison, as well as a $250,000 fine, or twice the gain/loss from his criminal acts.
The case was filed in the US District Court of New Jersey, presided over by Judge Madeline Cox Arleo. There is no word yet on when sentencing will be handed down.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com