Dr. Mona Ghosh, a prominent Indian-American OB-GYN based in Chicago, has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for orchestrating a wide-ranging healthcare fraud scheme. Authorities say her actions not only cost taxpayers millions but also endangered the health and fertility of her patients through unnecessary and unauthorized medical procedures.
10-Year Prison Term for OB-GYN Who Put Profits Over Patients’ Lives
A 52-year-old Indian-American physician, Dr. Mona Ghosh, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for masterminding a massive healthcare fraud scheme that endangered the reproductive health of numerous patients and siphoned millions from federal and private insurance programs. The verdict, delivered by U.S. District Judge Franklin U. Valderrama, comes nearly a year after Ghosh pleaded guilty to two counts of healthcare fraud.
Operating out of her clinic, Progressive Women’s Healthcare, in suburban Inverness, Illinois, Dr. Ghosh submitted fraudulent medical claims between 2018 and 2022 to Medicaid, Tricare, and private insurers. Prosecutors described the fraud as “particularly egregious,” citing procedures performed without consent and medical records falsified to exaggerate the complexity and necessity of treatments.
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A Pattern of Deception: How Ghosh Exploited the System
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, Dr. Ghosh routinely billed for procedures that were either never conducted or medically unwarranted. These included invasive practices such as endometrial ablations and biopsies, STD testing, ultrasounds, and even routine vaccinations. Investigators revealed that she manipulated billing codes, deliberately inflating the seriousness of patients’ conditions to qualify for higher reimbursements.
In many cases, Ghosh overstated the length and difficulty of in-person and telemedicine appointments. She directed her staff to replicate the scheme, creating a culture of systemic fraud. Her records were altered to fabricate justifications for procedures that not only lacked medical necessity but, in some cases, caused irreversible harm, including infertility.
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Prosecutors commended the bravery of former patients who testified about their experiences, many of whom said they never consented to the procedures performed. One victim stated that she believed she was receiving a routine exam, only to later discover she had undergone an unnecessary endometrial biopsy, a procedure with risks of long-term reproductive consequences.
U.S. Attorney Morris Pasqual called the scheme “a betrayal of the Hippocratic Oath.” He noted that taxpayer-funded programs such as Medicaid are designed to assist vulnerable populations, not to enrich medical professionals through manipulation.
The court also ordered Dr. Ghosh to pay $1.5 million in restitution, approximately ₹12.5 crore, to government and private insurers. Legal experts note that while healthcare fraud prosecutions have risen in the United States, cases like this, involving direct patient harm and invasive procedures, are among the most severely punished.
The sentencing comes amid heightened scrutiny of medical billing fraud across the U.S. Earlier this month, Indian-origin pharma tycoon Tonmoy Sharma, founder of Sovereign Health Group, was arrested in Los Angeles in a separate $149 million (Rs. 1285 Crores) healthcare fraud investigation. Dr. Mona Ghosh, once a respected figure in Illinois’s medical community, will now serve her sentence in federal prison, a fall from grace that underscores the dark consequences of placing greed above care.
About the author – Prakriti Jha is a student at National Forensic Sciences University, Gandhinagar, currently pursuing B.Sc. LL.B (Hons.) with a keen interest in the intersection of law and data science. She is passionate about exploring how legal frameworks adapt to the evolving challenges of technology and justice.