Oncologist Fata's Victims 'Injured Twice' in Restitution Plan: Attorney

Oncologist Farid Fata’s victims in a $34 milllion Medicare billing scam that subjected many of them to painful, unnecessary cancer treatments should be treated at least on par with insurance companies in the court's restitution plan, their attorney argued in a federal court complaint.

Jules Olsman, an attorney for Fata’s victims, said in documents filed in U.S. District Court that the way the restitution plan was structured, Medicare and and Blue Cross Blue Shield will be paid before the victims. The insurers receive $17 million in restitution, leaving $10 million to $15 million available to victims.

“Our goal here is to prevent the victims of Dr. Fata from being injured twice — once by him and now by the government,” Olsman told WWJ.

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“The issue isn’t just how you split it up, but how you split it up fairly,” Olsman said. “Medicare, if they want their money back, they’re not going to get it back from the victims, they should get it back from the Fata restitution plan. That’s all we’re asking from the judge, is you treat our clients just the way Medicare wants to be treated. Medicare doesn’t get to take cuts in line, and that’s what they’re trying to do.”

After a 2013 raid on the Rochester Hills clinic, Fata was arrested in what federal prosecutors called one of the most egregious Medicare fraud cases ever because it exploited sick people at a vulnerable point in their lives.

Fata owned Operated Michigan Oncology Centers, which had multiple Oakland County locations.