Nurse Sentenced In $12M Health Care Fraud Scheme In RI, Other States

PROVIDENCE, RI — A registered nurse and nurse practitioner who defrauded health insurers and Medicare of nearly $12 million by seeking payment for patient services that were never performed has been sentenced to seven years in federal prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office District of Rhode Island announced in a news release Wednesday.

Alexander Istomin, 57, of Florida falsely claimed to have performed medical procedures on patients in Rhode Island, New York, and Florida and pleaded guilty in October 2022 to charges including health care fraud, mail fraud, and aggravated identity theft, officials said.

Istomin admitted that he routinely submitted fraudulent claims for in-person patient services that he did not perform, including supposed patient visits at a “ghost office” in Rhode Island and at offices in Florida and New York. In reality, he used the office, located in Greenwich, solely to receive mail including fraudulently obtained insurance payments, officials said.

As part of his schemes, Istomin also waived copayments for some Medicare patients in order to induce his patients not to report his fraudulent billing to Medicare. He also used patient names and information to get prescriptions filled at various pharmacies and returned to him for distribution to people other than the ones for whom the prescription was filled.

“With the proceeds of his illegally gotten gains, [Istomin] bought a million-dollar home in Florida and expensive cars," Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Boston Division, wrote in the news release. "These taxpayer-funded programs are designed to provide essential medical services to the elderly and disadvantaged, not to enrich corrupt health care professionals and other fraudsters.”

On Tuesday, Istomin was sentenced to 7 years of incarceration to be followed by three years of federal supervised release, to pay a fine of $30,000, and to pay restitution to Medicare and private insurers totaling $11,923,686.30.