Two Los Angeles-area weight loss doctors have been indicted on multiple federal counts connected with an alleged $250 million fraudulent billing scheme.
Dr. Julian Omidi, 53, of West Hollywood and Dr. Mirali Zarrabi, 59, of Beverly Hills appeared in court on Monday to answer for multiple federal counts of mail and wire fraud, false statements, money laundering and aggravated identity theft. The charges arose from their operation of the 1-800-GET-THIN lap band surgery program between May 2010 and March 2016, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Omidi, along with his brother Michael, were once featured on the E! network reality television show, “Dr. 90210,” which aired from 2004 to 2008.
Prosecutors alleged that Omidi, born “Combiz Omidi,” and Zarrabi subjected patients to unnecessary medical procedures so that they could justify lap band surgery and bill insurance providers for tens of millions of dollars.
The lap band is a proprietary silicone ring surgically installed around the stomach to discourage overeating and suppress appetite.
The duo “victimized countless patients when they allegedly provided medically unnecessary treatment in order to boost their own profits to the tune of tens of millions of dollars,” said California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones, commenting on the indictment.
Omidi, who partly owned 1-800-GET-THIN, allegedly pushed for lap band patients to undergo sleep studies. He also offered commission to staff who convinced patients to participate in the studies.
The alleged purpose of those studies was to identify medical conditions secondary to weight problems that Omidi could present to insurers so that they might pre-approve lap band surgery.
Sleep apnea is a condition wherein breathing repeatedly stops and starts during the course of sleep. According to the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, bariatric surgery for the installation of gastric bands has been shown to alleviate sleep apnea by inducing weight loss.
Prosecutors alleged that a number of Omidi and Zarrabi’s patients underwent sleep studies, often with no evidence to suggest that such studies were medically necessary.
At Omidi’s direction, prosecutors said employees of 1-800-GET-THIN would falsify study results to reflect that a patient had moderate to severe sleep apnea, and that they suffered from severe dizziness when awake.
Those falsified reports were used in support of acquiring pre-authorizations from insurers for lap band surgery, according to the indictment.
The indictment stated that 1-800-GET-THIN received at least $38 million from insurers for lap band procedures. When an insurer did not authorize the surgery, the company still submitted bills for each sleep study, which were priced at $15,000 a piece.
Prosecutors alleged that Zarrabi permitted use of his electronic signature by 1-800-GET-THIN employees to represent that he had reviewed the fraudulent sleep studies. The indictment stated he knew the reports were incorrect, and allegedly demanded to be paid for use of his signature on hundreds of prescriptions for continuous positive airway pressure devices, or CPAPs, used to treat sleep apnea.
Omidi reportedly had his physician’s license revoked in 2009 for “dishonesty.” In its order, the Medical Board of California said the revocation was in connection with his involvement in the “burglary of exam papers” from a professor’s office at UC Irvine in the early '90s, when Omidi was an undergraduate student there. The board said Omidi also subsequently omitted or lied about academic discipline he received as a result of that incident.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Zarrabi’s medical license is still in good standing.
If convicted, Omidi and Zarrabi could face up to 20 years in prison each for the mail and wire fraud counts alone.
