United States v. Greber

Greber (defendant), a physician, founded Cardio-Med, Inc., which provided physicians with cardiac-monitoring devices and billed Medicare for the related services, paying referring physicians a 40 percent "interpretation fee" per patient — more than Medicare allowed — even when Cardio-Med itself evaluated the device data. Greber had previously testified in a civil proceeding that if a doctor didn't get his fee, he wouldn't use Cardio-Med's service. The government charged Greber under the Anti-Kickback statute, and the trial judge instructed the jury that the government needed to prove Cardio-Med paid physicians from its Medicare receipts, that Greber knowingly and willfully caused the payment, and that he intended to induce physicians to use Cardio-Med's services — even if the referral fee also compensated genuine interpretation work. The jury convicted Greber.