PROVIDENCE – A registered nurse and nurse practitioner who admitted to fraudulently billing commercial health insurers and Medicare for nearly $12 million for services that he never provided in Rhode Island and other states was sentenced to seven years in prison, U.S. Attorney for Rhode Island Zachary A. Cunha announced Wednesday.
In Oct. 2022, Alexander A. Istomin, 57, admitted that he routinely submitted fraudulent claims for in-person patient services he claimed to have performed at his offices in Rhode Island, New York and Florida. He pleaded guilty to 11 counts, including health care fraud, mail fraud, aggravated identity theft and causing the introduction of misbranded drugs into interstate commerce.
U.S. District Court Chief Judge John J. McConnell, Jr. on Tuesday sentenced Istomin to 84 months of incarceration to be followed by three years of federal supervised release, pay a fine of $30,000 and pay restitution to Medicare and private insurers totaling $11.2 million.
“By billing for services that he never performed, including at a Rhode Island location that was little more than a mail drop, Alexander Istomin thought he could make off with millions in taxpayer and insurance dollars that were meant to fund real medical care, for real people, all without consequence,” Cunha said. “He was very much mistaken. The sentence imposed reflects both this office’s commitment to bring to justice individuals who perpetrate this kind of brazen fraud and abuse of our health care system and should serve notice of the consequences for those who seek to enrich themselves through schemes like these.”
Investigators found that Istomin or the patients he identified were often in another state or out of the country at the time he billed for the services. They also found that a supposed office that Istomin claimed to have in East Greenwich was a nonexistent medical practice at which no medical services were provided.
Istomin admitted to a federal judge that he waived copayments for some Medicare patients, despite being aware that waiving copayments is prohibited. By waiving copayments, Istomin induced his patients not to report his fraudulent billing to Medicare.
He also admitted to distributing illegally obtained prescription drugs to people they were not prescribed for.
