Spyros Panos, a former orthopedic surgeon who was previously convicted of health care fraud, pleaded guilty on October 30, in United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, to charges of wire fraud, health care fraud, and aggravated identity theft. According to the indictment, Panos assumed the identity of a licensed orthopedic surgeon and obtained payments for reviewing patient files in connection with healthcare appeals and Workers Compensation cases. Panos submitted that surgeon’s credentials to peer review companies, defrauding the peer review companies of more than $876,000.
According to Medscape, Panos was released from prison in 2017 after serving less than three years of his former health care fraud sentence. Panos pled guilty to one count of felony health care fraud in November 2013 based on a multimillion dollar scheme that defrauded multiple insurance providers. Panos surrendered his medical license that year.