19 others indicted in the scam.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Detroit-area physician Dr. Walayat Khan pleaded guilty last week to a charge of helping create a healthcare fraud scheme worth somewhere around $7 million.
Khan (66), a resident of Ypsilanti, Michigan, pleaded guilty to a single charge of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud. His sentencing occurred in US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan on July 1, and comes nearly seven months to the day after he and 19 other individuals were indicted for their roles in the scam.
According to a press release put out by the Department of Justice, Khan and his cohorts were engaged in fraudulent activities starting in January of 2009. Khan agreed to refer Medicare beneficiaries to a number of medical clinics in the Detroit area – such as Advance Home Health Care Services, Inc. and Perfect Home Health Care Services, LLP – for certain procedures that were unnecessary.
Khan would create false documentation to help these clinics bill Medicare for expenses that were never needed, bilking millions of dollars in the process. On top of that, Khan would also write prescriptions for controlled substances that patients did not need, and would bill Medicare for filling these, as well. In total, Medicare was billed for exactly $6,123,044.28, of which $5,504,733.31.
Khan’s co-conspirators in this scheme are:  Adelina Herrero, 72, of Ann Arbor, Mich.; Amer Ehsan, 44, of Canton, Mich.; Haroon Ur Rashid, 47, of West Bloomfield, Mich.; Mohammad Rafiq, 47, of West Bloomfield, Mich.; Salman Ali Sapru, 51, of Ypsilanti, Mich.; Farhan Khan, 25, of Ann Arbor, Mich.; James Zadorski, 48, of Detroit, Mich.; Cynthia Bell, 55, of Detroit, Mich.; and John Sanders, 59, of Pontiac, Mich.
The case against Khan and his cohorts was investigated by the FBI and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector general (HHS-OIG), along with the Medicare Fraud Strike Force and the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan.
Khan’s case is being heard by US District Judge Paul D. Borman, who has set Khan’s sentencing date for October 7. The amount of prison time Khan faces has not been released.