Former New York orthopedic surgeon Spyros Panos has been sentenced to 111 months in prison and three years of supervised release for health care fraud, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft.
Former NY Ortho Surgeon Spyros Panos Gets 111 Months in Prison
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Panos pled guilty to the charges in 2020. For OTW’s coverage, see “Former Ortho Surgeon Pleads Guilty in Identity Theft Scheme.” This is the second health care fraud conviction for Panos.
Per the indictment and other court statements and submissions, and the Department of Justice press release, Panos impersonated a licensed orthopedic surgeon practicing in Westchester County, New York, as part of a scheme to “defraud six medical peer review companies.” As part of the scheme, he submitted the surgeon’s credentials to peer review companies and conducted peer reviews using the surgeon’s name and credentials. Panos “defrauded the peer review companies of $876,389.97” over the course of the scheme.
When did the scheme begin? While he was out on release in another health care fraud case. In 2013, Panos pled guilty to a single count of health care fraud in federal court and surrendered his license to practice medicine. He began the second scheme before serving his prison sentence for the first fraud conviction. He did not engage in the scheme while serving his prison sentence but did resume the scheme upon his release from prison.
Panos has been in custody since July 2022. He was sentenced in White Plains federal court by United States District Judge Kenneth M. Karas.
United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams announced the sentencing in a press release. Per the press release and according to court documents, Panos also “submitted false and fraudulent documents in support of requests for adjournments of sentencing based on false claims that he tested positive for COVID-19 and then suffered from COVID related pneumonia.”
For OTW’s coverage of Panos, see “$140 Million Malpractice Award Against Ortho Surgeon,” “Thousands of Insurance Appeals Went to a Fraud,” “Former Ortho Surgeon Steals Identity,” and “Fake Surgeries Alleged in Poughkeepsie.”
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This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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