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."
David is accused of fatally shooting the five victims aged 11, 7, 2, 1 and 51 at the family home on the 3,500 block of Garnet Lane in Lancaster in northern Los Angeles County, according to the news release.
The Omicron variant was first reported to the WHO by South Africa last week. So far, several countries and regions have confirmed cases of infection with Omicron. Dozens of countries have already tightened travel measures, and even suspended flights, Xinhua news agency reported.
Residents of Kabul complain that gunmen linked to the Taliban government have lately been checking their mobile phones, thus violating their privacy, Pajhwok News reported. Concerned at the unwarranted checks, they said the practice amounts to trampling on human rights and respect for their privacy.
Even as the world is entering a third year into the Covid-19 pandemic, the infectious disease that claimed the lives of more than 5 million people so far is far from over, the WHO said on Monday.
Jack Dorsey, the maverick behind making Twitter the world's go-to social platform to rant, laud, troll or play simple catch up, is moving on. Indian-American Parag Agrawal, Twitter @paraga, is the new CEO, with immediate effect, Dorsey announced.
Retailers are expected to usher in the unofficial start to the holiday shopping season Friday with bigger crowds than last year in a closer step toward normalcy. But the fallout from the pandemic continues to weigh on businesses and shoppers' minds.
