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Triple-Dipping Jail Psychiatrist Fired For Past Medicare Fraud Conviction
Dr. Kripa Kashyap, 62, a psychiatrist providing treatment to prisoners at the Harford County (Maryland) Detention Center in Bel Air was barred from treating any more prisoners after The Baltimore Sun newspaper revealed his past conviction for Medicare fraud. For the past seven years, Kashyap counseled prisoners and prescribed medications at the jail six hours a week through a contract with ConMed Inc., a private prison medical service company from LaPlata, Maryland.
Until June, 2004, Kashyap was associate clinical director of a state-run institution for the mentally ill in Cantonsville, Maryland, being paid $120,692 a year. He was fired from that job after state auditors discovered that he had been falsifying time sheets to get double pay. The auditors said that Kashyap billed the Department of Mental Health and Hygiene for at least 160 hours he had spent as a private consultant at the state-run Regional Institute for Children and Adolescents in Baltimore while receiving his regular salary from the Department for the same hours. The 160 hours he fraudulently billed amounted to $8,800 between July 2003 and February 2004.
In January 1987, Kashyap pleaded guilty to billing Medicaid for services he did not perform. He was given a suspended sentence of one year imprisonment, given five years probation, fined $10,000 and ordered to pay Medicaid $146,391 in restitution.
State officials refused to say whether they knew about the conviction or his moonlighting when they hired him. Jail officials said that, although they prohibit the hiring of personnel with a history of criminal convictions, they depended upon ConMed to do background checks on the personnel they provided under contract with the jail.
Source: The Baltimore Sun.
Until June, 2004, Kashyap was associate clinical director of a state-run institution for the mentally ill in Cantonsville, Maryland, being paid $120,692 a year. He was fired from that job after state auditors discovered that he had been falsifying time sheets to get double pay. The auditors said that Kashyap billed the Department of Mental Health and Hygiene for at least 160 hours he had spent as a private consultant at the state-run Regional Institute for Children and Adolescents in Baltimore while receiving his regular salary from the Department for the same hours. The 160 hours he fraudulently billed amounted to $8,800 between July 2003 and February 2004.
In January 1987, Kashyap pleaded guilty to billing Medicaid for services he did not perform. He was given a suspended sentence of one year imprisonment, given five years probation, fined $10,000 and ordered to pay Medicaid $146,391 in restitution.
State officials refused to say whether they knew about the conviction or his moonlighting when they hired him. Jail officials said that, although they prohibit the hiring of personnel with a history of criminal convictions, they depended upon ConMed to do background checks on the personnel they provided under contract with the jail.
Source: The Baltimore Sun.
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