A Fort Lee psychiatrist, who has an office in Paterson pleaded guilty to charges of bribery, according to Paul Fishman, United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey.

Claudio Dicovsky, 51, whose office is located in 681 Broadway, was in cahoots with a venal medical lab operating out of Parsippany: Biodiagnostic Laboratory Services. Mr Dicovsky worked out an arrangement where he would send blood specimens of patients to the lab, and in return the lab would offer him kickbacks.

Mr Dicovsky, who is a psychiatrist, collected $224,000 from his quid pro quo operation. The lab and Mr Dicovsky conjured an ingenious way to facilitate the payments that the psychiatrist would collect on a monthly basis for referring patients to the Parsippany medical lab.

Mr Dicovsky signed a fraudulent lease and service deal providing the company with a bogus 1,000 square feet of office space in his Broadway practice for $5,000 per month. The money seemed as if it was legitimate to most outsides; however, it was anything but, for Mr Dicovsky did not have the extra 1,000 square feet in his office that he was leasing. Investigator discovered the whole setup was phony.

The lab made $800,000 from Mr Dicovsky referrals of his patients;  the president of the lab is facing charges for bribery and other infractions.

Mr Dicovsky agreed to forfeit $220,000 to federal authorities. “Decisions about medical care should not be influenced by doctors and providers who are more interested in lining their pockets than in providing quality health care,” said Mr Fishman. “The doctors who pleaded guilty today admitted making decisions about the care they provided based on being paid in return for their referrals. We will continue to seek out and punish those doctors and other medical professionals who put profit before patient care.”

Mr Dicovsky could face a “maximum potential penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.”