By John Burton
COLTS NECK – A Colts Neck physician pleaded guilty in federal court on Wednesday to accepting thousands of dollars in bribes for what federal authorities said was a wide-ranging scheme to defraud Medicare and other medical insurance companies.
Ralph Messo, 53, with practices in internal medicine on Route 34 in the township and on Staten Island, New York, pleaded guilty in Newark to one count of accepting bribes, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Newark.
Federal authorities had charged that Messo had accepted bribes in exchange for test referrals as part of what they alleged was a long-running and elaborate scheme with Biodiagnostic Laboratory Services, LLC, Parsippany, its president and numerous associates.
Messo admitted in court he was paid approximately $3,000 a month for referring patient blood specimens to Biodiagnostic Laboratory. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said those referrals generated at least $828,000 in lab business.
Including Messo, 34 people – 23 of them medical doctors and others principals in Biodiagnostic Laboratory – have pleaded guilty to their involvement in the scheme, authorities said.
Organizers have admitted their involvement to the fraud, which had resulted in millions of dollars being paid in bribes and in more than $100 million in payments to the laboratory from Medicare and various private insurance companies.
The investigation, conducted by U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Health Care and Fraud Unit, to date has recovered more than $10.5 million in forfeiture.
Messo is scheduled to return to federal court on May 12 for sentencing, where he could face as much as five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. As part of his plea, he must forfeit $82,500, according to federal authorities.
