Law360 (April 22, 2021, 8:36 PM EDT) — A physician was sentenced to a year and a day in prison in Illinois federal court Thursday for defrauding Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois and Medicare of nearly $1 million by submitting thousands of claims for tests his patients never received.

U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman handed down the sentence to Pranav Patel about four months after the physician, who owned Palos Medical Care SC, admitted he submitted more than 10,000 false claims to BCBS and the federal government between 2008 and 2013 for diagnostic tests he never actually provided to patients. Patel was also ordered to pay more than…