Bonnie Meislin, Health Care Fraud, New York 2015

Bonnie Meislin, a 45-year-old Utica woman, was found guilty on February 25, 2015, following a six-day jury trial in federal court in Utica, New York, of 23 counts of health care fraud and one count of conspiring with Mahesh Kuthuru to send false and fraudulent billings to Medicare.

Meislin, who was employed at Upstate Pain Medicine, a medical office with locations in Fulton and Utica, New York, was accused of submitting false and fraudulent bills to Medicare from January 2010 through September 2011. The bills indicated that Meislin or another medical professional under her direct supervision had treated patients in the New York offices, when in fact Mahesh Kuthuru, the owner of Upstate Pain Medicine, was either in Nevada or outside the country and had not seen the patients nor supervised a medical professional who had done so.

Kuthuru, who had earlier pled guilty to health care fraud and illegal distribution of prescriptions on January 22, 2015, is scheduled to be sentenced on May 22, 2015, at 12:00 pm in Utica. Meislin faces a maximum term of imprisonment of ten years and a fine of $250,000 on each of the health care fraud counts. The maximum prison term for the conspiracy count is five years and a fine of $250,000.

United States District Court Judge David N. Hurd scheduled sentencing for July 1, 2015, for Meislin. The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the New York Department of Health, Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, the Health and Human Services Department, the Worker’s Compensation Board, Office of Inspector General, Excellus Special Investigations Unit, Safeguard Services, and MVP Health Care, Special Investigations Unit. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward R. Broton.

The conviction is the result of a lengthy investigation into the practices of Upstate Pain Medicine and its owner, Mahesh Kuthuru. The investigation found that Kuthuru had moved to Las Vegas in 2009 and had begun to spend the majority of his time there, returning to his Utica and Fulton offices only intermittently. Despite this, he continued to submit false and fraudulent bills to Medicare, resulting in millions of dollars in losses.

Meislin’s conviction is a significant victory for the government in its efforts to combat healthcare fraud. The case highlights the importance of vigilance and oversight in the healthcare industry, and the need for healthcare providers to ensure that their practices are legitimate and compliant with the law.

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