N.H. Podiatrist Offers Guilty Plea in Medicaid Scam

New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly Ayotte announced that Stanley A Gorgol, D.P.M. Inc., a podiatry practice with offices in Salem and Derry, N.H., pleaded guilty recently in Merrimack County Superior Court to the crime of Medicaid fraud.

The company’s president, Gorgol, entered the guilty plea on the company’s behalf. The company was ordered to pay restitution of $18,330, which was paid at sentencing. Under federal law, the company’s conviction requires mandatory exclusion from participation in government health care programs, including Medicare and Medicaid.

At sentencing, Superior Court Judge Kathleen McGuire called the company’s conduct a “terrible crime,” and expressed hope that the conviction would deter others from engaging in similar wrongdoing.

The conviction stems from conduct occurring over several years, in which the company reportedly filed more than 80 fraudulent claims with the Medicaid Program to obtain reimbursement for orthotic foot devices furnished to Medicaid recipients. The scheme was accomplished by reportedly altering invoices in order to inflate the company’s alleged cost for purchasing the devices. The altered invoices, when submitted to the Medicaid Program, caused the company to be paid $285 for each device, when it was only entitled to the $78 it actually paid for the product.

In connection with the criminal disposition, both the company and Gorgol entered a civil settlement with the State under which Gorgol paid an additional $40,000 that covered civil penalties and reimbursed the State’s investigative costs.