Pittsburgh man sentenced to 18 months in prison for illegal kickback schemes
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - A Pittsburgh man has been sentenced to 18 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $77 million in restitution for his role in conspiring to pay illegal kickbacks related to laboratory tests, United States Attorney Eric G. Olshan announced Tuesday.
Ravitej Reddy, 56, of Pittsburgh, pled guilty to three counts of conspiring to commit offenses against the United States and one count of offering and paying kickbacks in connection with a federal health care program, per a press release.
According to court records, Reddy used two Pittsburgh-area laboratories he owned and operated to execute three illegal kickback schemes. Reddy and others paid kickbacks to marketers in return for the marketers obtaining cheek swabs from Medicare beneficiaries to be used in laboratory testing as well as paying kickbacks to ensure telemedicine physicians provided prescriptions for laboratory testing for the swabs obtained by the marketers.
Reddy's labs were then billed for the performance of the tests.