IANS
New York, January 11
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...
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