Milford MD gets prison in undercover probe of Norwalk pill mill clinic

The first of two local doctors charged in a nationwide narcotics fraud sweep has been sentenced to more than four years in prison.

Bharat Patel, the 71-year-old founder of Immediate Health Care — which later became Family Health Urgent Care on Norwalk’s Main Street — was sentenced to 54 months in prison Friday by Senior U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton.

Patel was accused of writing hundreds of medically unnecessary prescriptions for oxycodone and hydrocodone in exchange for $158,523.95 in government reimbursements and other payments.

The money has been forfeited to the government.

Patel pleaded guilty in June 2018 to one count of conspiracy to distribute oxycodone and hydrocodone, and one count of health care fraud.

Patel, who lives in Milford and has been detained since his arrest in 2017, worked at Stamford Hospital while a young doctor.

His lawyer, a former U.S. Attorney for Connecticut, provided 90 letters on Patel’s behalf and called him a leader in India and its community of residents in the U.S.

He said that Patel has lost his good name, professional reputation and medical license as a result of the prosecution.

“For almost 40 years, residents and patients in and around Fairfield and New Haven Counties have been served by this universally liked, community-driven doctor,” said Stanley A. Twardy Jr

Current U.S. Attorney John “Bull” Durham had a different opinion.

“A lengthy prison term is appropriate for any physician who abandons his oath and profits by selling prescriptions for opioids, by overprescribing these highly addictive drugs to patients — many of whom illegally distributed the drugs they received — and by defrauding our healthcare system,” said Durham.

“This doctor’s criminal conduct contributed to the ongoing opioid epidemic as tens of thousands of narcotic pills were dispensed to individuals who didn’t need them and shouldn’t have them,” Durham said.

Last month, Dr. Ramil Mansourov, 49, of Tokeneke Road, Norwalk, who bought the clinic from Patel but also hired him to work there, pleaded guilty to health care fraud and money laundering. He will be sentenced Dec. 5 by Arterton.

Mansourov was accused of billing Medicaid for nearly $5 million for home, office and nursing home visits that never occurred. Some of that money was transferred to a Swiss bank account. He faces up to 30 years in prison.

Mansourov also is expected to be ordered to forfeit $50,000 for providing narcotic painkillers to patients who did not medically need them and in some instances allegedly resold them.

The pair was indicted as part of a nationwide probe into the over-prescription of narcotic pain-killers and health care fraud which included charges against 115 doctors, nurses and medical professionals and involved $1.3 billion in false billings

Patel was arrested and his home and office searched on July 12, 2017, by federal agents. Mansourov allegedly fled to Montreal, where he was caught the following day by Canada Border Services agents on an immigration charge.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Rahul Kale has a 12-minute black and white video which shows a cooperating witness sliding three $100 bills to Patel in March 2017 after telling the doctor to write him several prescriptions for narcotics with specific dates.

Documents filed by Kale in federal court allege that Patel repeatedly wrote narcotic pain killer prescriptions for addicts and dealers in exchange for $100 for each script.

Some of the prescriptions were for people he never saw and many were paid for by Medicaid and Medicare. One of them was to a convicted Norwalk drug dealer.

Kale also claimed that nearly 40 participants in a Norwalk Narcotics Anonymous meeting had been Patel’s patients at one time.