A doctor in Louisville, Kentucky, was sentenced in federal court for one count of conspiracy to solicit and receive unlawful kickbacks, United States Attorney Cindy K. Chung announced.
United States District Judge Kim R. Gibson sentenced John Baird, 55, a physician, to five years of probation, including two years of home detention. Baird was also ordered to pay restitution totaling $567,609.36 to Medicare.
During the defendant’s plea hearing, Baird admitted that while practicing as a licensed physician specializing in physical medicine, rehabilitation, and pain treatment, he entered into an illegal kickbacks-for-referrals conspiracy with Williams Hughes, the owner and operator of Universal Oral Fluid Labs, a clinical drug-testing laboratory in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Baird received cash payments from UOFL in exchange for referring patients—including patients covered under Medicare—to the lab for drug testing services. Read more.
