New York ophthalmologist sentenced to 96 months for healthcare fraud

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Dr. Ameet Goyal, 58, an ophthalmologist in Rye, New York, was sentenced March 3, 2022, to 96 months in prison for orchestrating a seven-year healthcare fraud scheme.

Goyal falsely billed for millions of dollars of upcoded procedures, and also fraudulently obtained two Government-guaranteed loans intended to help small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic while he was facing charges on pretrial release for the healthcare fraud scheme, a press release from the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York said.

In imposing the sentence, U.S. District Judge Cathy Seibel is quoted saying, “Fraud doesn’t fully capture how blatant this was and how unjustified this was… This was not about need, it was about greed.”

Goyal previously pled guilty to all charges in a six-count superseding Indictment before Judge Seibel on September 13, 2021.

In addition to the prison term, Goyal was sentenced to five years of supervised release, and ordered to pay forfeiture of $3.6 million and restitution of $3.6 million.  He has already paid approximately $1.79 million toward these obligations.

Goyal has surrendered his medical license.

“As a result of his fraudulent billings, GOYAL was the highest-billing doctor in the tri-state area for several of his fraudulently billed codes, one of which he billed seven times more frequently than all doctors in the tri-state area combined,” the press release said.