Tuesday, September 29, 2015

The Worst Case of Medical Fraud in United States History

Dr Farid Fata, a 50-year old married father of three and native of Lebanon, ran a private practice, Michigan Hematology Oncology, with seven offices in the Detroit area and worked as an oncologist. He was sentenced last July to 45 years in federal prison for misdiagnosing and treating over 500 patients. He had been misdiagnosing patients with cancer and then treating them with powerful anti-cancer drugs for years. Dr Fata made nearly $35 million from Medicare and other insurers.

His scam unraveled when another physician who worked for him detected that patients who were receiving chemotherapy treatments were never officially diagnosed with any types of cancer. He reported his findings to federal authorities.

During the case, several victims testified about their experiences with Dr. Fata.  Most of them detailed how they went through intensive chemotherapy and other anti-cancer treatments and medications completely unnecessarily after finding out that they never even had cancer.

Medical malpractice is usually unintentional, although there are cases like Dr. Fata's which involve deliberate fraud and misuse of medicine, most commonly for financial gain.


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