(Image source from: The Asian Age)

An Indian-origin woman has been sentenced to more than five years in prison for health care fraud and making mendacious statements related to a health care benefits programme.

Vilasini Ganesh was sentenced on August 28 to 63 months in prison, the United States Attorney Alex Tse said.

The 47-year-old Ganesh, 47 and her husband Gregory Belcher, 56, both of California were convicted of the charges in December earlier this year after an eight-week trial.

The grounds at proceeding demonstrated Ganesh submitted a series of mendacious medical claims accompanying family medical practice she owned in California's Saratoga town.

For days, she submitted claims when a patient had not been seen by the provider and claims for patients who had been seen by a physician provider who no more was connected with her practice. In addition, she billed insurers with claims that certain patients were seen 12-15 times in a single month.

A federal grand jury indicted Ganesh and Belcher, in July 2017, charging them with multiple counts of health care fraud, including one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud.

During Ganesh's sentencing hearing, Judge Lucy Koh said that Ganesh obstructed justice by misrepresenting her understanding of the legal system, the amount of money she was paid by insurers and whether she understood that it was improper to "upcharge" when submitting claims to insurers.

Additionally, to the prison term, Koh sentenced Ganesh to a 3-year term of supervised release and ordered her to pay damages in the amount of over USD 344,000. Ganesh will commence serving the prison sentence on November 1, 2018.

Belcher was sentenced in April this year, to a year and a day in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release.

By Sowmya Sangam