Kentucky doctor who reaped $565K in kickbacks from Hempfield lab gets 2 years of home detention

A Kentucky doctor who admitted reaping more than $500,000 in illegal kickbacks from the owner of a now-defunct Westmoreland County drug testing lab will serve two years of home detention, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

John Baird, 55, a Louisville physician who specializes in physical medicine, rehabilitation and pain management, also must pay restitution totaling $567,000 to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S. District Judge Kim R. Gibson of the Western District of Pennsylvania ordered during a court hearing. Baird’s sentence will be followed by five years of probation.

The sentence is being imposed after Baird pleaded guilty in July 2018 to conspiring to solicit and receive unlawful kickbacks and defraud CMS through what federal prosecutors described as a “kickbacks-for-referrals” scheme dating to 2012.

His co-conspirator was Williams Hughes, who previously owned and operated Universal Oral Fluid Labs on Willow Crossing Road in Hempfield. Hughes was sentenced in July to 60 days in prison followed by a year of home detention for his role in the conspiracy. Hughes pleaded guilty last year.

Hughes also was ordered to forfeit $750,000 in previously seized assets and pay an additional $5,000 fine, Chung said.

Under the illegal “joint venture,” Baird would refer all of his patients to the Hempfield lab for drug testing and related services, prosecutors said. Baird received monthly checks from the lab in exchange for doing so — up to $150 per referral, including those enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid insurance plans, prosecutors said.

The Hempfield lab “in turn, billed third-party payors including Medicare and Medicaid for such tests, and then kicked back to Dr. Baird for, each referred patient, reimbursement amounts for the tests that exceeded agreed-upon thresholds, which were typically between $100 and $150,” prosecutors said. The ‘“joint venture” payments were solely based on patient referrals and “not in exchange for the performance of any other services.”

In 2019, four other doctors — including one from Jeannette — agreed to settle allegations they received improper payments from the Hempfield lab for referrals.

Dr. Robert Fetchero of Jeannette agreed to pay $200,000 to settle an allegation that he received kickbacks. Dr. Sridhar Pinnamaneni of Windermere, Fla. agreed to pay $370,000; Dr. Nathan Hanflink of Mt. Dora, Fla., agreed to pay more than $911,000; and Dr. Thelma Green-Mack of Zionsville, Ind., agreed to pay $130,000.

Another defendant, Varanise C. Booker, 66, a licensed psychiatrist in Louisville, pleaded guilty in October after receiving $843,000 in kickbacks. Booker is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 10.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric G. Olshan prosecuted the case against Baird with help from the FBI, U.S. Health and Human Services, IRS and the state Attorney General’s Medicaid fraud unit.

RELATED: Former Hempfield lab owner ordered to jail, house arrest in kickback scheme