Burbank Clinic Owner Sentenced To Federal Prison

LOS ANGELES (CNS) - The former owner-operator of a Burbank medical clinic was sentenced Monday to three years behind bars for participating in a scheme to defraud Medicare by prescribing unnecessary services and equipment, which often were not even provided.

Knarik Vardumyan, 53, of Burbank was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer, who ordered Vardumyan to pay more than $1.7 million in restitution to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Vardumyan pleaded guilty in April to two counts of federal healthcare fraud. According to court documents, Vardumyan admitted that she knowingly and unlawfully participated in a scheme to defraud Medicare by billing Medicare for "medically unnecessary office visits and diagnostic tests," and by arranging "for the issuance of . . . prescriptions and orders for medically unnecessary durable medical equipment" and "home health services."

Vardumyan further admitted, "many, if not all" of the people who visited her clinic were brought by co-schemers known as "marketers," who offered promises of free, medically unnecessary equipment or food to those Medicare beneficiaries who were willing to attend Vardumyan's clinic, court documents show.

In sentencing papers, the government noted that Medicare paid more than $1.7 million as a result of the scheme, and that a 37-month term of imprisonment adequately reflects the nature and circumstances of the offense, as well as the need for the sentence to "promote respect for the law and afford adequate deterrence against this kind of serious fraud against our healthcare system and the public."

— CNS; Image via Shutterstock

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