St. Louis physician Sonny Saggar is facing 35 months in federal prison and an order to repay $742,528 for defrauding Medicare and Missouri Medicaid, charges he admitted to in court last year.
U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Clark sentenced Saggar on Wednesday.
Saggar, 57, testified in August that he let assistant physicians treat patients and then billed Medicaid as if he had seen the patients personally – even when he was out of town during the office visits.
Missouri law requires doctors to supervise assistant physicians closely.
“Doctors are expected to follow a certain code of conduct and obey the laws and regulations put in place to protect their clients,” Michael Davis, DEA St. Louis Division special agent in charge, said in a statement.
“Our investigation shows that Dr. Saggar broke with protocol and endangered lives with his negligence. As a result of his misconduct, he was arrested, surrendered his DEA Certificate of Registration, can no longer prescribe controlled substances, and faces nearly three years in federal prison,” Davis added.
Saggar testified that he hired assistant physicians at St. Louis General Hospital locations in St. Louis and Creve Coeur between 2018 and 2023 but did not properly train them or oversee their decisions about patient care. He also recruited other physicians to falsely claim they were overseeing the assistants, according to the judge.
Saggar, a native of England, took public stands in favor of gun control and held various leadership positions with St. Louis health care facilities in addition to running the St. Louis General Hospital locations, as owner of North City Urgent Care and CEO of the distressed St. Alexius Hospital in south St. Louis.
Office manager Renita Barringer pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and faces sentencing next month.
