A nurse practitioner who defrauded health insurers and Medicare out of nearly $12 million by seeking payments for patient services that were never performed has been sentenced to seven years in prison.

Alexander Istomin, 57, submitted fraudulent claims for in-person patient services that he falsely claimed to have performed at offices in Rhode Island, New York and Florida, the U.S. attorney's office in Rhode Island said in a statement Wednesday.

In some cases, patients that Istomin claimed to have met in person were in another country at the time. Some visits took place at a ghost office in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, that Istomin claimed was part of his medical practice when it was used solely for the purpose of receiving mail, prosecutors said.

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He also used patient names and other information to get prescriptions filled, which he would keep and then distribute to others, prosecutors said.

A nurse practitioner from Rhode Island has been sentenced to seven years in prison for defrauding insurance companies and Medicare out of $12 million. (WHD News)

He also waived copayments for some Medicare patients, which is prohibited, and in return the patients would not report the fraudulent billing, prosecutors said.

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Eight insurers were affected, prosecutors said.

He pleaded guilty in October to health care fraud, mail fraud, aggravated identity theft, and causing the introduction of misbranded drugs into interstate commerce.