PSYCHIATRIST GUILTY OF MEDICAID FRAUD,
SENTENCED TO JAIL

Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr. announced today that Roman Ostrovsky, M.D., pled guilty to defrauding the Medicaid program of $200,000 by billing Medicaid for services that were never provided. Baltimore County Circuit Court Judge John G. Turnbull, II, sentenced Ostrovsky to five years in jail, all but 12 months suspended, with the 12 months to be served in home confinement. In addition, Ostrovsky paid $250,000 at the time of sentencing and is required to pay an additional $150,000 over the next two years. Judge Turnbull placed the defendant on two years probation.

Ostrovsky, 48, of Harwick Court in Mount Washington, Maryland, is a licensed psychiatrist who was enrolled in the Medicaid Program as a Medicaid Provider with a practice on Reisterstown Road in Pikesville, Maryland. From January 2002 to May 2004, Ostrovsky engaged in a scheme to defraud Medicaid by billing for thousands of 45 minute therapy sessions that he did not perform.

During the period of the indictment, Dr. Ostrovsky billed for nearly 6,500 psychiatry sessions lasting 45-50 minutes each. His scheme was discovered because there were many days in which Dr. Ostrovsky billed for more than eight hours of services, and up to 19 hours of treatments for a single day. Dr. Ostrovsky frequently billed for more than 12 hours of services a day, services that he did not perform.

During the week of June 7-13, 2003, the defendant billed Medicaid for an average of almost 10 hours of services every day for five days straight. For the week of May 13-16, 2002, the defendant billed for 16 ½ hours a day for four straight days. Overall, he billed for more than eight hours of services 293 times during the period of the indictment.

The case was prosecuted by the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) of the Maryland Attorney General’s Office and was referred to the Unit by the Mental Hygiene Administration.