Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., today announced that a jury has found physician SURESH HEMRAJANI, 58, guilty of perpetrating a $700,000 Medicaid fraud out of his Washington Heights office. HEMRAJANI, a specialist in internal medicine, prescribed Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) medications to his patients, though they did not have the virus, and billed the cost of the medications to Medicaid. The defendant was convicted of Grand Larceny in the Second Degree, Petit Larceny, and eleven counts of Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree.

“Programs like Medicaid depend upon an honor system that must be upheld by our medical practitioners,” said District Attorney Vance. “The defendant not only took advantage of a program intended to assist New Yorkers who cannot afford to pay for medical care, he also took precious funds from a state facing severe budget cuts. I thank the jurors for their service and careful attention in this case.”

Acting Medicaid Inspector General James C. Cox said: “Dr. Hemranjani's conviction is a win for taxpayers and Medicaid enrollees.  Government needs to protect healthcare services and public dollars - that's why patient abuse and misuse of taxpayer funded healthcare cannot be tolerated.  Billing Medicaid for services that were not rendered is a breach of the public trust.  This case started with a hotline call to our Office and we worked with District Attorney Vance's office and NYC Human Resources Administration to pursue this result.  We applaud the work of District Attorney Vance and his whole team in achieving this conviction.  It is a demonstration of the kind of work that our offices conduct on a daily basis.”

As proven at trial, throughout 2008 HEMRAJANI wrote prescriptions for HIV medications for numerous individuals without determining whether they actually had HIV. HEMRAJANI prescribed medications for these individuals after their first visit to his office and the cost of the medications was billed to Medicaid. HEMRAJANI also created false records for his purported treatment of the patients, even though in most cases these individuals did not visit his office more than once. The defendant charged Medicaid for the initial patient visits and for the subsequent visits that did not take place. When some of these patients later attempted to obtain prescriptions from a hospital, one of them was tested and found to be HIV-negative, which prompted an investigation by the Office of the Medicaid Inspector General, the Human Resources Administration Bureau of Fraud Investigation, and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

The investigation into the whereabouts of the HIV medications is ongoing.

Assistant District Attorney David Casanova prosecuted this case under the supervision of Marcy Chelmow, Chief of the Public Assistance Fraud Unit. District Attorney Vance thanked the New York State Office of the Medicaid Inspector General and HRA Bureau of Fraud Investigation for their assistance in the investigation.

Defendant Information:

SURESH HEMRAJANI, D.O.B. 09/15/53

New York, NY

Convicted:

• Grand Larceny in the Second Degree, a class C felony, one count
• Petit Larceny, a class A misdemeanor, one count
• Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree, a class E felony, eleven counts