New York: An Indian-American physician in Chicago has been sentenced to over two years in prison for engaging in a healthcare fraud scheme.

Jaswinder Rai Chhibber, 50, operated a medical clinic and was convicted after a trial in March of defrauding medicare insurance provider BlueCross BlueShield.

Chhibber submitted false insurance claims for medically unnecessary tests he ordered for patients and using false diagnosis codes to justify those tests.

He was sentenced yesterday to two-and-a-half years in federal prison for the healthcare fraud he ran between 2007 and July 2010. He has been ordered to begin serving his prison term on September 5 by US District Judge Suzanne Conlon and pay a USD 15,000 fine.

Chhibber was found guilty of five counts of healthcare fraud and four counts of making false statements involving a health care benefits programme after a week-long trial.

The jury found him not guilty of seven additional counts.

The evidence at trial showed that Chhibber ordered medically unnecessary tests, falsified patients' medical records and used false diagnosis codes on insurance claim forms for at least five patients who testified at trial.

Two undercover federal agents, who had posed as patients, also testified against him during the trial.

Evidence also showed that Chhibber administered echocardiograms, nerve conduction studies, doppler exams and abdominal ultrasounds for an unusually high percentage of his patients.