A physician from Porter Ranch has pleaded guilty to fraud for submitting false home health certifications and fraudulent billings to Medicare totaling at least $1.4 million.
Dr. Lilit Gagikovna Baltaian, who operated medical clinics in Tujunga and Reseda, allegedly conspired with at least four home health agencies from January 2012 to July 2018, according to a plea agreement filed this week in U.S. District Court.
Baltaian, 61, was indicted in 2021 following a lengthy investigation by the FBI and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Prosecutors obtained more than 130,000 pages of bank records, subpoena responses, interview reports, employment, Medicare, tax and medical records, search warrant materials and cell phone data.
A person who answered the phone Friday at Baltaian’s office said she was unavailable to comment because she was seeing patients.
The home health agencies Baltaian conspired with are located in Glendale and Panorama City and are not identified in the plea agreement. U.S. Department of Justice officials declined to comment Friday on whether the agencies face criminal charges.
Baltaian’s false certifications for patients were used by the home health agencies to fraudulently bill Medicare for services that were unnecessary and, in some cases, not provided.
Baltaian, who could not be immediately reached for comment, in some cases presigned blank, undated physician certification forms knowing the agencies would later falsify the forms to make it appear as if she had seen the Medicare beneficiaries and had made clinical findings to support the need for home health, prosecutors said.
“Defendant signed the paperwork provided by the home health agencies, including face-to-face certifications that falsely certified that defendant had face-to-face encounters with the beneficiaries and that the beneficiaries were qualified to receive home health care, regardless of the beneficiaries’ actual conditions,” states the plea agreement.
All total, the four home agencies used the certifications signed by Baltaian to submit fraudulent claims to Medicare totaling $1.4 million.
In return, the agencies gave Baltaian various gifts and cash referred to as “gas money.” She also was paid $42,792 by Medicare directly for certifying home health beneficiaries on her own, the plea agreement states.
In 2021, the court prohibited Baltaian from working or owning a home health agency, as a medical director or attending physician and barred her from submitting Medicare claims.
Baltaian faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced on April 3, 2025.