Convicted Surgeon Arrested for Posing as Another Doc in WC Peer Reviews

Thursday, April 12, 2018 | 0

A former surgeon in the Hudson Valley was arrested this week on charges of using another physician's identity to reap more than $860,000 in payments for reviewing workers' compensation cases.

Spyros Panos, 49, of Hopewell Junction, New York, was charged with wire fraud, health care fraud and theft in the scheme, and could face up to 20 years in prison, according to a local news report.

It is Panos' second alleged offense. In 2013, he pleaded guilty to health care fraud and spent more than two years in prison. Before going to prison, he allegedly set up a company to do peer reviews on case files, under the name of a Westchester physician, the news report said.

Five review companies paid Panos' Excel O LLC company for the fraudulent reviews.