Dr. Shayasta S. Mufti, a former Newark, Delaware physician, has agreed to pay $180,000 to resolve allegations that she violated the False Claims Act by ordering medically unnecessary genetic tests for more than 100 Medicare beneficiaries, according to an April 29 announcement from federal authorities.
The settlement addresses concerns about fraudulent claims submitted to Medicare and highlights efforts by law enforcement to protect federal health care programs from misuse. Authorities allege that Dr. Mufti ordered expensive genetic tests between April and November 2019 without establishing a proper doctor-patient relationship or using the test results for patient care.
According to the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware, Dr. Mufti did not examine these patients or review their test results and sometimes placed orders based solely on brief telemedicine consultations—or no consultation at all. The cost of these tests often amounted to thousands of dollars per patient billed to Medicare.
U.S. Attorney Benjamin L. Wallace said, “Physicians who order unnecessary and expensive services, including genetic tests, drain critical resources from Medicare and other federal health care programs. These schemes not only waste taxpayer dollars, they undermine the integrity of programs that millions of Americans rely on. Our office will continue to use data analytics and work closely with our law enforcement partners to identify providers who misuse federal funds and to hold them accountable.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacob Laksin and Auditor David Cheung handled the case for the government.
Authorities clarified that the settlement resolves allegations only; there has been no determination of liability in this matter.