N.J. Podiatrist Sentenced for Medicaid Fraud

New Jersey Attorney General Peter Harvey announced that a former Hudson County podiatrist has been ordered to reimburse the Medicaid Program nearly $6,000 for billing the cost of fraudulently obtained prescription drugs to the state and federal program.

According to Vaughn McKoy, Director, Division of Criminal Justice and Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Greta Gooden Brown, Seymour H. Blau, 80, a retired podiatrist from Jersey City, was sentenced to one year probation conditioned upon paying $5,819 in restitution to the Medicaid Program.

Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Brown noted that Blau pled guilty to medicaid fraud on Oct. 15, 2002 before Hudson County Superior Court Judge Elaine L. Davis.

At the guilty plea hearing, Blau reportedly admitted that between September, 1998 and April, 2001, to writing and submitting approximately 150 fraudulent prescriptions for legend drugs and controlled dangerous substances in the names of four former Medicaid patients. Almost $6,000 in illegally prescribed drugs were then billed to the Medicaid Program.

The indictment to which Blau pled guilty was filed by the Division of Criminal Justice – Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor, Medicaid Fraud Unit, which investigates and prosecutes civil and criminal insurance and Medicaid fraud cases.