Dr. Adarsh Gupta convicted of health care fraud charges

NEWARK — A South Jersey doctor has been found guilty in connection with a multi-million-dollar Medicare fraud.

But Dr. Adarsh Gupta will challenge the verdicts against him, seeking acquittal or a new trial, a defense attorney said.

Gupta “signed thousands of prescriptions” for orthotic braces that were medically unnecessary or not eligible for Medicare reimbursement, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

It alleged he wrote prescriptions for more than 2,900 people between October 2017 and April 2019, collecting $30 for each one.

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Brace supply companies used the false prescriptions to bill Medicare more than $5.4 million, the Justice Department alleges.

Medicare paid out $2.9 million in connection with the fraud.

A federal jury convicted Gupta on April 26 of three counts of health care fraud and two counts of false statements relating to health care matters.

But Gupta’s attorney, Nicholas Harbist of Princeton, said the verdicts for fraud were inconsistent with the jury acquitting the doctor of conspiring to commit that crime.

“Dr. Gupta respects the jury’s decision and the process, but disagrees with it,” Harbist said.

He said the doctor will ask the trial judge to overturn the verdicts or to grant a new trial.

Gupta took part in the scheme as a contractor for AffordAdoc Network telemedicine companies, said an indictment in September 2021, when the doctor was a Voorhees resident.

The indictment said patients were convinced of the need for braces after calls from telemarketers.

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It said Gupta then had brief phone calls with Medicare beneficiaries and wrote prescriptions asserting the braces were medically necessary. He also claimed falsely that he had diagnosed the patients and had a continuing care plan for them, the Justice Department said.

Gupta agreed with the AffordADoc Network “to provide few, if any, medical treatment options for patients besides braces during the purported telemedicine consultations," the indictment claimed.

Gupta in one instance prescribed multiple braces for an undercover investigator after a telemedicine conversation of a little more than a minute, according to the Justice Department.

He also allegedly prescribed a knee brace for a person whose legs had been amputated.

U.S. District Judge Madeline Cox Arleo scheduled sentencing for Oct. 8 in Newark federal court.

Jim Walsh is a senior reporter with the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. Email: Jwalsh@cpsj.com.

This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Dr. Adarsh Gupta convicted of health care fraud charges