A New York operations manager, Timothy Doyle of Selden, N.Y., pleaded guilty today in federal court in Boston to conspiring to offer and pay kickbacks to physicians in exchange for ordering medically unnecessary brain scans. Mr. Doyle admitted to one count of conspiracy to violate the anti-kickback statute. U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M Gorton scheduled sentencing for April 3, 2025.

Between at least June 2013 and September 2020, Mr. Doyle conspired with others, including two managers from a mobile medical diagnostics company that performed transcranial Doppler (TCD) scans, to establish kickback agreements with various physicians. TCD scans are brain scans measuring blood flow in parts of the brain. Mr. Doyle and his alleged co-conspirators agreed to offer and provide kickbacks, some in cash and others by check, based on the number of TCD ultrasounds ordered by physicians. They created purported rental and administrative service agreements that, on paper, appeared to compensate doctors for the TCD company’s use of space and administrative resources at fair market value rather than the volume or value of referrals. These agreements were fraudulent and concealed the true nature of the per-test payments.

This scheme resulted in fraudulent bills totaling approximately $70.6 million to Medicare, which paid about $27.2 million to the TCD company for these fraudulent claims. The charge of conspiracy to violate the Anti-Kickback Statute carries a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based on the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes governing criminal case sentences.