Dr. Farid Fata/ photo from his website.
You might recall that the evil cancer doctor Farid Fata of Oakland County was sentenced in July 2015 to 45 years in prison for giving unnecessary chemotherapy treatment to patients who didn't need it and scamming Medicare out of millions of dollars.
Well, his cancerous existence is still playing out.
The U.S. Attorneys Office in Detroit announced Tuesday that it had reached a settlement with Vitas Health Corporation Midwest and other related entities to pay $200,000 to resolve allegations that they contributed money to Fata's cancer charity in exchange for him referring cancer patients to Vitas' hospice care services, Tresa Baldas of the Detroit Free Press reports.
The feds discovered the arrangement from a whistle-blower, Rita Dubois, who once worked at Vitas as the director of marketing development in Southeast Michigan, the Freep reports. She filed a complaint with the government and will get $36,000 out of the $200,000 settlement.
Under the scheme, which ran from 2012 to 2014, Vitas contributed contributed $15,750 to a cancer charity that Fata had established called Swan For Life Cancer Foundation. Fata in turn referred 23 patients to Vitas for hospice care.
“Patients deserve to receive referrals based on the quality of the services provided, not based on illegal kickback arrangements between medical providers,” U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said. “We are working to root out practices that enrich doctors and medical businesses at the expense and potential safety of patients.”
Fata, 51, is being housed at a federal prison in Salters, S.C. His release date is 2052. He would be 87 years old.
