A New York-based healthcare executive has pleaded guilty to participating in a substantial kickback conspiracy that defrauded Medicare of millions of dollars by incentivizing doctors to order medically unnecessary brain scans. James Rausch, 57, of Port Jefferson Station, N.Y., admitted in a Boston federal court to his role in a long-running scheme. As the director of operations and sales for a mobile medical diagnostics company, Rausch was involved in a conspiracy to pay doctors for ordering transcranial doppler (TCD) scans, which measure blood flow in the brain. The Anatomy of the Fraud From March 2015 to September 2020, Rausch and his co-conspirators arranged to pay doctors for each TCD scan they ordered. To disguise these illegal kickbacks, they created sham agreements. These documents falsely claimed the payments were for legitimate services, such as renting office space or administrative support, and were based on fair market value. In reality, the payments were directly tied to ...