Delaware doctor Shayasta Mufti accused of Medicare fraud
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The doctor in Delaware had never treated, examined, met or even communicated with the 57-year-old woman who lived in Louisiana.
The physician did try to reach the woman by phone for a telehealth consult. The doctor called three times, but ultimately learned it was the wrong number.
That failure to connect didn’t stop Dr. Shayasta Mufti from ordering a comprehensive battery of genetic tests to help determine the woman’s risk of contracting cancer, federal prosecutors allege in court papers.
The rationale for the expensive testing, according to Mufti’s “physician encounter note,” was that the woman’s sister and grandmother had breast cancer.
“Hence, patient would like to be informed of any further risk(s) to themselves and/or family members by understanding their genetic composition,” court documents say.
The tests were done and Medicare, the government’s health program for older Americans and some people with disabilities, reimbursed the lab $4,980.
But Mufti never reviewed the test results or followed up with the woman who lived 1,300 miles from her doctor’s office near Newark, Delaware.
In all, during an eight-month period in 2019, Mufti is accused of ordering “medically unnecessary genetic testing” for 103 people after “purported consultations” with people who were never her patients, according to the civil complaint filed last month by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware.
Her illegal actions led to Medicare being billed $1.7 million and paying out $565,000 because of “the false and fraudulent genetic testing orders and supporting documentation that Dr. Mufti created or caused to be created,’’ the complaint alleges.
The government’s accusation that Mufti violated the federal False Claims Act was filed in late June in U.S. District Court in Wilmington. She could face substantial fines, if found liable.
Dr. Shayasta Mufti ordered genetic testing for a 57-year-old Louisiana woman she never spoke with. She tried calling three times but had the wrong number. (U.S. District Court, Wilmington)
Three-quarters of the genetic tests that Mufti allegedly participated in ordering were done by Landmark Diagnostics, a laboratory based in Houston.
In 2022, Landmark’s owner pleaded guilty in federal court to health care fraud, taking kickbacks and money laundering in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Florida. Daniel Hurt is now serving a 10-year prison sentence for orchestrating the scheme that ripped off Medicare and other insurers of tens of millions of dollars for bogus genetic testing for cancer.
Multiple attempts by WHYY News to reach Mufti were not successful. Her attorney, Adam Balick, would not comment. “We don’t have anything to say about this case outside the courtroom,’’ Balick wrote in an email.
Mufti, who is a board certified Delaware internist, says on her Linkedin profile that she is a “hospitalist at ChristianaCare Health System.”
But Bill Schmitt, a ChristianaCare spokesman, said Mufti previously was once a “casual” provider who wasn’t ever on staff, but “sometimes worked shifts when ChristianaCare needed additional hospitalist support.”
Schmitt stressed that the accusations against Mufti did not involve any work she did for ChristianaCare, the largest health care system in Delaware.
The case is part of the federal government’s 2025 National Health Care Fraud Takedown. The ongoing effort has led to criminal and civil charges, as well as settlements, against hundreds of medical professionals across the country.
Besides Mufti, one other case involved a Delaware medical provider.
Authorities said nurse practitioner Sandra Jackson, who now lives in Florida, has agreed to pay the government $38,000 to resolve allegations that she violated the False Claims Act by ordering genetic tests and equipment for more than 300 Medicare recipients she also never treated, evaluated or met personally.
Instead, Jackson logged on to a telehealth provider’s online portal that contained information on patients, including their medical history. That data was used to generate orders for tests and equipment for them, which Jackson “subsequently reviewed and electronically signed, sometimes within only a few seconds,” according to a statement of facts in the settlement Jackson signed.
Medicare paid $521,792 for those orders, the settlement with Jackson said.
Dylan Steinberg, the acting U.S. attorney for Delaware, said his office and others across the country take health care fraud seriously.
“The integrity of our federal healthcare programs, including Medicare, relies on medical providers adhering to professional standards of care and billing accurately for services that are medically necessary for their patients,” Steinberg said in a written statement. “We will continue to work tirelessly with our federal partners to hold accountable those who exploit programs designed to help our most vulnerable citizens and ensure that services are provided based on medical need, not financial gain.”
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