A Washington Heights doctor faces up to 15 years in prison for allegedly running a $700,000 scam in which he falsely diagnosed his patients with HIV in order to fraudulently bill Medicaid. Suresh Hemrajani, 57, was arraigned today on felony charges of grand larceny, fraud and falsifying business records. According to Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance, Hemrajani would immediately prescribe medications for the patients on their very first visits, and send the bill to Medicaid. The investigation is still ongoing, but prosecutors believe that the patients participated willingly in the scam.

According to the Post, Hemrajani is also accused of falsifying records of his patients' repeated treatments, even though most of them never visited his office more than once. The alleged scam was only exposed when some of the patients got greedy and tried to get more HIV drugs from a hospital and the hospital tested them, discovering they were HIV later tried to get additional prescriptions for HIV drugs from a hospital, where they were tested and found to be HIV-negative. Meddling hospitals!

"By taking advantage of a program intended to assist New Yorkers who cannot afford to pay for medical care, the defendant victimized not only the neediest members of our community but also all New York taxpayers," District Attorney Vance said today in a statement.