West Hartford doctor pleads guilty to health care fraud

A Connecticut doctor pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in Boston to receiving kickbacks in exchange for ordering medically unnecessary brain scans, according to federal authorities.

Dr. Donald Salzberg, 67, of Avon, pleaded guilty before U.S. Senior District Court Judge Douglas P. Woodlock to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and one count of conspiracy to receive kickbacks, according to federal authorities.

A sentencing hearing has not yet been set. Salzberg was charged on May 23.

Federal authorities said Salzberg,

who has been a licensed medical doctor in Connecticut for 36 years, owned and operated Donald J. Salzberg, M.D., an ophthalmology practice in West Hartford.

From 2014 through 2019, Salzberg “conspired with a principal for a medical diagnostics company that performed transcranial doppler (TCD) scans — brain scans that measure blood flow in parts of the brain — to order hundreds of medically unnecessary TCD scans in exchange for kickbacks,” federal authorities said in a statement.

Salzberg and his co-conspirator used “false patient diagnoses to order the unnecessary brain scans, for which the co-conspirator

would submit claims to Medicare and other insurance companies on behalf of the medical diagnostic company for payment,” the statement said. “In exchange, Salzberg was paid cash kickbacks of $100 to $125 per test that he ordered, as well as sham administrative services fees. The scheme resulted in fraudulent bills of over $3 million to Medicare and private insurance companies.”

The charges of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and conspiracy each provide for a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000, federal authorities said.