http://khn.org/news/victims-seek-payments-as-dr-death-declares-innocence/
Victims of “Dr. Death” had until this week to submit receipts for unnecessary chemotherapy, medical bills for liver damage and funeral expenses for their loved ones. By an initial count on Tuesday, 517 former patients and their families had filed claims against Farid Fata, the Detroit-area cancer doctor convicted of raking in over $17 million by poisoning patients with chemotherapy and other drugs they did not need.
Fata was branded by prosecutors as “the most egregious fraudster” in U.S. history for scamming Medicare and private insurers by giving at least 553 patients, some of whom did not have cancer, thousands of doses of unnecessary and expensive drugs. Now he insists he did nothing wrong. Breaking his silence in a jailhouse interview, Fata said victims claiming he killed loved ones or ruined their lives are misguided and that those who died were “going to die anyhow because of the nature of the diseases.”
Fata, nicknamed “Dr. Death” by his victims, is serving a 45-year sentence in a federal prison in South Carolina after pleading guilty to 13 counts of health care fraud, one count of conspiracy to pay or receive kickbacks and two counts of money laundering. He ran one of Michigan’s largest private cancer practices, with a network of clinics outside of Detroit, from 2005 to 2013.
The 51-year-old prisoner told Kaiser Health News he plans to speak in court at a Jan. 17 restitution hearing and declare his innocence. Fata said his guilty plea in 2014 came under duress, and he is preparing to seek freedom through a habeas corpus petition, by which a judge would determine if his detention is lawful.
HENRY KOTULA 