Texas doctor charged in $89M fraud case as administration pushes healthcare crackdown
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has charged a Texas doctor with an $89 million health care fraud scheme; accused him of billing insurance companies for medically unnecessary cardiovascular screening tests for college student athletes and then branding the results as normal without reviewing them.
Jason Finkelstein, 53, faces health care fraud and conspiracy charges in what prosecutors describe as a years-long scheme that fueled fears that athletes could die from sudden heart attacks on playing fields or courts.
The indictment stated that athletes who had no pre-existing conditions and were worried about getting permission to participate in the competition were given tests they did not need, and in one case, a patient whose results were mistakenly confirmed as normal later died because serious heart problems were not detected.
The indictment is among a series of cases that the Justice Department plans to highlight at a press conference on Tuesday, announcing record results. Nationwide crackdown on healthcare fraudThis is a long-standing federal law enforcement priority that the Trump administration sought to highlight last year.
The department says Finkelstein’s case involves allegations not only of services not provided but also of poor medical performance that put patients at risk and represents the type of complex scheme prosecutors are trying to disrupt.
“The doctor’s claim that ignores the textbook diagnosis of preventable cardiac death is disgusting.” Dr. Mehmet OzA trained cardiovascular surgeon and head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, he added in a statement that healthcare fraud “not only steals money, it can steal lives.”
An attorney for Finkelstein, who pleaded not guilty during a brief hearing in Florida on Monday, did not immediately respond to an email or phone message seeking comment.
The alleged fraud occurred between 2019 and the end of last year, and prosecutors say it involved Finkelstein and a pair of unidentified co-conspirators at a Florida-based cardiovascular testing and treatment facility he owned and operated.
Officials say the plan essentially consists of two components; Using what the indictment describes as deceptive marketing tactics, Finkelstein and his company offer free heart screenings to students who do not need them and then approve the test results as normal without reviewing them; even when they turn out to be uncovering potential problems.
The indictment quotes Finkelstein telling an unnamed co-conspirator he was working with that “(these) kids may be at high risk…(that)if one of them dies in the field, they’re going to come after both of us.”
Finkelstein’s accomplices sent emails to athletic trainers at colleges and universities stating that the tests offered could detect any life-threatening condition that could prevent students from playing, and also offered kickbacks and other incentives to school officials for referring potential patients.
Insurance companies do not cover comprehensive cardiovascular testing, instead requiring prior determination of a medical necessity. To get around this hurdle and secure reimbursement, prosecutors say, Finkelstein presented insurers with fake diagnoses, such as high blood pressure and hypertension, that did not actually exist in athletes.
The indictment says his company relied on sonographers who lacked the credentials to travel to college campuses to perform the tests, and because Finkelstein was licensed in the contiguous 48 states, he and his company were able to solicit patients across the country.
Prosecutors also say Finkelstein would normally have approved heart test results without actually examining them. In one incident in 2024, he signed approximately 63 images of a patient’s test results after roughly 11 seconds, according to the indictment. The indictment states that test results revealed multiple heart abnormalities and that the patient later died.
