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ALBANY – The state Attorney General’s Office has reached an $860,000 settlement with a Schenectady-based medical transportation company in a fraud case, officials said Monday.
The settlement came over services the company billed Medicaid for but did not provide, officials said.
Officials reached the settlement with Ismat Farhan and his company USA Medical Transport. The company is based at 1814 State St. in Schenectady, officials said.
The company provides transportation to and from medical appointments for Medicaid recipients.
The Attorney General’s Office, however, found that Farha submitted more than 2,500 false claims and billed Medicaid for an estimated $400,000 in unsupported transportation services. The services did not take place as described, lacked required documentation or didn’t happen at all, officials said.
Farhan is to pay a total of $862,500 to the New York State Medicaid Program as a result of the settlement, officials said.
“Medicaid is meant to help support the medical needs of vulnerable New Yorkers, not to pad a company’s profits,” Attorney General Letitia James said in a press release. “Farhan and USA Medical Transport took advantage of their patients and taxpayers by billing Medicaid for thousands of services that were never provided. My office will keep ensuring that our state’s laws are followed and that Medicaid dollars are spent helping New Yorkers in need.”
The Attorney General’s Office found that Farhan submitted the fraudulent claims over nearly a five-year period, from June 2015 to February 2020, officials said.
The false claims concerns rides not provided, inflated mileage, rides that should have been bundled, rides from drivers with suspended licenses — Farhan included — lack of documentation and reimbursements for tolls that did not happen, officials said.
The Albany Regional Office of the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit conducted the investigation.
