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The 50-year-old Indian American internal medicine doctor and 47-year-old hospital proprietor in Texas were convicted of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, three counts of money laundering, and 17 counts of health care fraud.

The United States Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, Ryan K. Patrick announced earlier this week that the jury deliberated for less than four hours following a two-week trial before pronouncing Dr. Harcharan Narang and Dayakar Moparty guilty.

Narang owned and practiced at North Cypress Clinical Associates, while Moparty managed and operated Red Oak Hospital.

Narang and Moparty face up to 10 years in federal prison for each count of money laundering and up to 20 years for each count of health care fraud. Narang and Moparty were permitted to remain on bond with an ankle monitor pending their sentencing hearing, set for June 20, 2019, before the U.S. District Judge Sim Lake.

During the trial, the jury heard evidence that Narang and Moparty made money from submitting false and fraudulent claims for medical tests that were not medically needed, not provided or both, and then invoiced at Red Oak Hospital at a higher reimbursement rate, the press release said.

Prosecutors proved that Narang and his co-conspirators also falsified home health patient assessment form documents to make the beneficiaries seem sicker on paper to get higher reimbursement rates from health care benefit programs such as Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, and Aetna. Moparty also instructed his employees to falsely bill the medical services at Red Oak Hospital and other entities associated with him, when in fact, the patients never received services from Red Oak and the other entities, the press release noted.

Patients who testified at the trial said that they had merely gone for weight loss shots. However, after meeting up with Narang, they all received the same battery of medical tests that were not required or provided.

Health care benefit programs paid Red Oak Hospital close to $3.2 million. Moparty then secretly paid Narang close to $3 million to various corporate entities Narang owned, according to a press release.

Narang and Moparty’s co-conspirator, Dr. Gurnaib Sidhu, 67, of Houston, had previously pleaded to conspiracy to commit to health care fraud and is awaiting sentencing.

-Sowmya Sangam