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I am so sick and tired of people who get caught doing something they know is wrong saying they are sorry after being caught.
Dr. Marc Blatstein knew exactly what he was doing when he set up his phony Central Park Ambulatory Surgery Center ["Podiatrist gets two years for fraud," Oct. 6].
Blatstein was even smart enough to use the Parcel Plus store to receive insurance checks for his bogus surgery center.
Who pays for his greediness? You and I--the people who pay dearly for insurance, whose premiums go up year after year. Our incomes do not begin to meet the premium increases. We are the ones who are paying for his dishonesty.
As usual, the insurance companies will be paid back, but what about the co-pays and deductibles his patients paid him? Again, the public takes it in the pocketbook.
Twenty months in jail is not enough for these white-collar crimes. Let him know how it feels to have to work at a menial job, just trying to make ends meet.
Then and only then will he begin to know what remorse is.
I hope Martha Bailey, as well as others who have read this article realize that the vast majority of podiatrists, and physicians for that matter, are honest hardworking individuals who strive to provide high quality ethical care.
Fraud lands city foot doctor in federal prison
February 9, 2006 12:50 am
Quote:
A Fredericksburg physician has been sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison for his role in a billing scam.
Dr. Marc J. Blatstein, a podiatrist, will report to a federal penitentiary in Florida by March 14 to begin serving his term.
Judge Richard L. Williams also ordered Blatstein to pay restitution of $272,704, the money he received in overpayments by health insurance companies.
Blatstein pleaded guilty in October to one count of mail fraud. He was sentenced yesterday in U.S. District Court in Richmond.
Blatstein's plea agreement called for a two-year prison term. Despite objections from prosecutors, Williams departed from the agreement yesterday and gave Blatstein a shorter term.
Yesterday's hearing ends a lengthy investigation by federal and state authorities into the phantom surgery center that Blatstein created at his podiatry office in the city's Central Park commercial development.
Because of this center, Blatstein was able to bill insurance companies for his foot treatments as well as the use of his facility.
In reality, the center was little more than a phone line, tax ID number, fake stationery and a rented mail box.
Blatstein had not obtained a state license for a free-standing surgery center. He did his surgeries in a room within his office.
The scam lasted from about 2000 to 2003. During that time, he collected $272,704 in unearned payments from health insurance companies. Cigna, Aetna, Humana and Federal Employees Health Benefits Program will receive restitution.
Neither Blatstein nor his attorney, David G. Barger, could be reached for comment yesterday. Blatstein's podiatry office is now closed.
Barger has stated in court that Blatstein will surrender his medical license to the state Board of Medicine, though that is not a condition of his sentence or plea.
Blatstein's restitution schedule calls for him to pay $200 per month or 25 percent of his gross income, whichever is greater. The payments are to begin 30 days after his release from prison.
I do agree with Summer insofar as most pods are honest and hardworking.That being said,I reallydo not have much sympathy for the doctor in question.I,like most of my colleagues,love what I do.The money is secondary to helping people.This miscreant did not seem too concerned about helping people.That kind of stuff just goes too far.
The latest from the Free Lance Star: Fredericksburg doctor faces new sentencing
April 13, 2007 12:36 am
Quote:
A federal appeals court has ordered a new sentencing hearing for a Fredericksburg doctor after ruling that his original sentencing hearing was flawed.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond said yesterday that Dr. Marc J. Blatstein, a Fredericksburg podiatrist, must return to federal district court in Richmond to be resentenced.
Blatstein pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud in February 2006 and was originally sentenced to 12 months and 1 day in prison. He served that sentence and was released from custody last month.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Richmond said yesterday that Blatstein must go back to district court for a new sentencing hearing and faces the possibility of returning to jail. No date has been set for the new hearing.
The appeal court's decision was a victory for federal prosecutors, who had appealed Blatstein's original sentence, and a rebuke to U.S. District Court Judge Richard L. Williams, the sentencing judge.
In a written opinion, the three-judge panel said that Williams erred in not giving notice that he intended to depart from federal sentencing guidelines.
At the 2006 hearing, Laura C. Marshall, prosecuting attorney, and David G. Barger, Blatstein's attorney, recommended a 24-month prison term, the low end of the advisory guidelines.
However, Williams reduced the sentence to almost half that. Williams said at the time that the shorter sentence was appropriate since Blatstein had started to make amends for his crime. Williams also said that the longer sentence would be hard on Blatstein and his family, and that a shorter sentence would save the federal government at least $25,000.
Marshall objected to the shorter sentence and later filed an appeal to the 4th Circuit.
She told the appeals panel last month during oral arguments that if Williams had given notice, she could have rebutted the facts and the legal reasoning.
"From start to finish, the sentencing proceeding was unreasonable," she said.
Blatstein pleaded guilty in October 2005. He admitted bilking health insurance companies for the use of a phantom surgery center at his podiatry office in Central Park.
In reality, the center was little more than a phone line, tax ID number, fake stationery and a rental box.
Because of the scam, Blatstein billed the companies twice, for his service and for the use of the center. The fraud lasted three years and netted $272,704 in overpayments.
He must make restitution as part of his plea deal.
Give backbreaking work to crook Blatstein
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