Indian-American doc pays $1,850,000 for performing unnecessary tests, surgeries
Darpan News Desk IANS, 11 Jan, 2023 01:38 PM
New York, Jan 11 (IANS) An Indian-American doctor has agreed to pay approximately $1,850,000 for allegedly billing the government for cataract surgeries and diagnostic tests that were not medically required.
Aarti D. Pandya and her Pandya Practice Group violated the False Claims Act by also performing and billing for tests that were incomplete or of worthless value, and office visits that did not provide the level of service claimed.
"Physicians who perform procedures and tests without a legitimate medical need place profits ahead of patients and subject those patients to unnecessary risk," said US Attorney Ryan K Buchanan in a statement released on Monday.
"This settlement represents our office's commitment to ensuring accountability for physicians who subject patients to unwarranted medical care and waste taxpayer funds," Buchanan said.
From January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2016, Pandya knowingly submitted false claims to federal healthcare programmes for medically unnecessary cataract extraction surgeries and YAG laser capsulotomies, according to a Justice Department release.
The prosecution alleged that Pandya performed these procedures on patients that did not qualify for the procedure under accepted standards of medical practice and, in some cases, caused injury to her patients.
Additionally, it accused Pandya of falsely diagnosing patients with glaucoma to justify unnecessary diagnostic testing and treatment that was billed to Medicare.
The prosecution also said that many of the diagnostic tests that Pandya ordered were not properly performed, were performed on a broken machine, or were not interpreted in the medical record, as required by Medicare.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) imposed in 2019 a payment suspension on the Pandya Practice Group that precluded it from receiving any reimbursement from Medicare for Part B claims.
As part of the settlement of the government's claims in this case, the Pandya Practice Group agreed to forfeit the suspension amount to the government.
The payment suspension will also be lifted as part of the settlement.
To protect federal healthcare programmes and beneficiaries going forward, Pandya and the Pandya Practice Group have entered into a detailed, multi-year Integrity Agreement and Conditional Exclusion Release (IA) with the Office of Inspector General.
"We must assure patients and taxpayers that healthcare is dictated by clinical needs, not fiscal greed," said Keri Farley, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta. "This settlement should serve as a reminder that the FBI will not tolerate healthcare providers who engage in schemes that defraud the industry and put innocent patients at risk."
Indian-origin people across the US have often been targets of robbers because they are believed to have lots of jewellery. The four, who had been under surveillance, were caught in another suburb, New Hyde Park, where they had targeted a house after following a woman, police said.
Claudio Campos, 28, attacked Avtar Singh in broad daylight as he was walking home from work through the Tib Street area of the City Centre on June 23. Campos, who was with his partner at the time, proceeded to walk up behind Avtar before violently punching him to the head. Singh fell into the middle of the road where he stayed unconscious until a passer-by called for an ambulance.
Quoting hate crime statistics 2021-22, Gill, an MP from Birmingham, said hate crimes against Sikhs rose by 169 per cent in comparison to a 38 per cent increase in reported religious hate crimes overall. The 2001 census recorded 336,000 Sikhs living in Britain. Gill said 301 hate crimes against Sikhs were reported in 2021-22, up from 112 in 2020-2021.
Jatinder Singh, 37, and his partner, Thevamanogari Manivel, 40, appeared by video link from prison in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday, where they were committed to stand trial over theft and other charges, the Canberra Times reported. Crypto.com intended to refund Manivel $100 but she was erroneously transferred $10,474,143.
The walls of India K' Raja restaurant, owned and operated by Tony Sappal, were spray-painted with derogatory words and phrases targeting Asian Americans. "For 27 years, this has been home. Nobody has ever displayed that kind of anger or hate to us," Sappal told the Richmond Times Dispatch.
Seehra has been awarded 'Commendation for Brave Conduct' for his swift action towards an agitated patient who threatened to blow up the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital in Queensland. The patient had a red-wired explosive-looking device wrapped around his body, Seehra told SBS Punjabi.
