An Anchorage physician accused of Medicaid fraud was sentenced in Superior Court Wednesday.
Dr. Shubhranjan Ghosh was sentenced to a total of seven years, with three and a half of those years suspended. He was also sentenced to 10 years probation.
Ghosh, of Ghosh Psychiatric Services, specialized in treating children and adolescents with autism and mental health disorders. He was arrested in 2014 for Medicaid fraud. State prosecutors said he assisted in filing more than $600,000 in false claims. Ghosh was also ordered to pay back $605,000 in restitution.
Originally facing multiple charges in connection with falsifying records and writing false prescriptions for friends, most of those charges were dismissed in a plea deal with the state — where Ghosh pleaded guilty to a single count of medical assistance fraud as well as evidence tampering.
Judge Philip Volland said Ghosh seemed to view Medicaid as a “golden calf,” calling it shocking that “a doctor would use his position to steal money from a program designed to provide medical assistance to the people who need it most.”
Volland said he didn’t buy Ghosh’s claims that his office manager, who actually filed the claims, was acting independently. Instead, Volland called Ghosh the “mastermind” behind the operation, who benefitted greatly from pocketing money that wasn’t his.
This story will be updated.
