MUSKOGEE, Okla. (KXII) - An Ada podiatrist has agreed to a $7,000,000 settlement after submitting false claims to the VA for excessive medical services.
According to a press release from The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, Dr. Bryan Andrew Blanck, a Doctor of Podiatric Medicine (DPM) who formerly owned and operated the Valley View Foot and Ankle Center, in Ada, agreed to pay the US to resolve allegations he violated provisions of the False Claims Act.
An audit conducted by the VA revealed that from February 2017 to June 2018, Dr. Blanck had the highest billing out of all of the individual providers in the VA Choice program, according to the release.
The release adds that an investigation alleged Dr. Blanck was misrepresenting the seriousness of patients’ wounds to obtain authorization to administer bioengineered skin substitutes and copy and pasted medical notes as justification for his billing.
For skin substitutes to be used, a detailed treatment history is required of standard wound care for a minimum of four weeks. At the end of the minimum four weeks, documentation must be shown as to why standard wound care has failed and it is necessary to use skin substitutes, according to the release.
It was also alleged Dr. Blanck regularly administered skin substitutes without performing standard preliminary wound care and billed the VA Choice program for these medically unnecessary services.
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