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Her nephew, Dr. Khashayar Salartash, must repay the $3 million

The Center for Lymphatic Disorders of Egg Harbor and Farah Iranipour Houtan, its office manager have been sentenced for defrauding Medicare and Medicaid of millions of dollars, state Acting Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Chillemi announced Monday.

Houtan, 54, of Egg Harbor Township, was sentenced to three years of probation by state Superior Court Judge Bernard E. DeLury Jr. in Mays Landing. DeLury also ordered Houtan to serve 200 hours of community service. Houtan’s sentence was based on her guilty plea to third-degree health care claims fraud. The Center for Lymphatic Disorders, which is no longer in business, was ordered to pay a $50,000 fine.

In pleading guilty on Sept. 29, Houtan, an aunt of Dr. Khashayar Salartash, an owner of The Center for Lymphatic Disorders, admitted that between January 2004 and June 2007, she billed the Medicaid and Medicare programs for services that were not provided to patients. As a result of Houtan’s fraudulent submission of health care claims, Medicaid and Medicare reimbursed CLD $3 million to which it was not entitled.

In a parallel civil proceeding, Salartash entered into a consent agreement requiring him to pay $3 million in restitution to the Medicaid and Medicare programs related to the fraudulent acts committed by Houtan and CLD. The order was entered on Sept. 29 before DeLury.

Chillemi and Deputy Attorney General Oriana Nadraga represented the state at the sentencing.

The matter was investigated at the state level by Assistant Attorney General Louise Lester, Nadraga, Sgt. Joseph Jaruszewski, Analysts James Reilly and B’leia Williams, Auditor Kim Geis, and Legal Assistant Mona Patel investigated the matter for the State. The investigation began after analysts contracted by Medicare to monitor billing identified unusual billing submitted by The Center for Lymphatic Disorders, LLC.

—TOM HESTER SR., NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM