CT Doc Gets Year in Slammer for $3M Health Care Scam

BOSTON – A corrupt Connecticut doctor has been sentenced to prison for his role in a five-year health care fraud scheme that bilked Medicare and private insurers out of over $3 million.

Dr. Donald Salzberg, 69, of Avon, Conn., was sentenced to one year and one day in prison, to be followed by one year of supervised release. Salzberg was also ordered to pay $1.34 million in restitution to Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers.

Salzberg, a licensed medical doctor in the State of Connecticut for nearly 40 years, owned and operated Donald J. Salzberg, M.D., an ophthalmology practice in West Hartford, Conn. From 2014 through 2019, Salzberg conspired with a principal for a medical diagnostics company to order hundreds of medically unnecessary transcranial doppler (TCD) scans in exchange for kickbacks.

Salzberg and his co-conspirator used false patient diagnoses to order the unnecessary brain scans, for which the co-conspirator would submit claims to Medicare and other insurance companies on behalf of the medical diagnostic company for payment. In exchange, Salzberg was paid cash kickbacks of $100 to $125 per test that he ordered, as well as sham administrative services fees.

Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy announced the sentencing, along with a host of other federal law enforcement officials. Assistant U.S. Attorney Howard Locker of the Health Care Fraud Unit prosecuted the case.

The scheme was uncovered after an investigation by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division, the U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General.

Salzberg pleaded guilty in July 2022 to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and one count of conspiracy to receive kickbacks.