Bay Area doctor guilty of accepting kickbacks for patient referrals that were a sham

A jury on Wednesday convicted a Bay Area doctor of healthcare fraud, as well as accepting kickbacks for patient referrals, authorities said.

Dr. Henry Geoffrey Watson, 67, an Oakland resident, also made false statements relating to a health-care matter, the jury decided, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney Thomas Colthurst of the Northern District of California. Watson remained free on bond, pending his scheduled sentencing hearing on Feb. 28, 2024.

According to Colthurst, Watson referred patients he visited in retirement homes under sham circumstances to expensive and unneeded home health services that were billed to Medicare.

Colthurst said the jury found that Watson used his position as a licensed medical doctor to participate in three kickback schemes involving health care from 2013 to 2019.

Evidence at trial proved that in the first kickback, Amity Home Health Care and its CEO, Amanda Singh, conspired with Watson to pay him $3,000 a month to refer Medicare patients to Amity, Colthurst said. Singh pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to pay kickbacks for the referrals on Aug. 5, 2022, according to court records.

Videos shown at the trial also showed Watson accepting envelopes of cash for a kickback totaling more than $10,000 at four meetings in 2017, Colthurst said. Those envelopes were delivered by an undercover FBI agent.

Colthurst said the third conviction involved a conspiracy between Watson and others to certify falsely that retirement home residents were homebound, meaning they did not have the normal ability to leave the home. The evidence at trial showed they were generally healthy, active and able to come and go.

Colthurst said the evidence also showed that Watson falsely billed Medicare for certifying the individuals and received $100 per patient referral.