A well-known East End family medicine physician has been sentenced in connection with a $1 million Medicare kickback scheme involving medically unnecessary brain scans.
Dr. Vishnudat Seodat, 76, of Mattituck, was sentenced on Dec. 19 to two years of supervised release, including one year of home confinement, in federal court. He had pleaded guilty last December to conspiracy charges following his arrest in Boston.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, Dr. Seodat participated in a scheme between June 2013 and June 2019 in which he and others ordered hundreds of brain scans that were not medically necessary. In exchange, he received illegal kickbacks.
Prosecutors said the fraudulent tests were ordered using false medical diagnoses, allowing claims to be submitted to Medicare and other insurance providers for reimbursement. The scans were performed by a mobile medical diagnostics company whose principal was also involved in the conspiracy.
As part of his sentence, Dr. Seodat was ordered to pay a $50,000 fine, $52,100 in forfeiture, and $342,876 in restitution.
Dr. Seodat had been a licensed physician in New York for 36 years and operated three New York Health, Inc. offices in Wading River, Riverhead, and Cutchogue. Authorities said he received approximately $100 per test in cash kickbacks.
The diagnostic tests involved transcranial doppler (TCD) scans, which measure blood flow within the brain.
Dr. Seodat announced his retirement in a letter to patients dated Nov. 20, 2024.
