Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, announced today a settlement agreement with New York-Presbyterian/Queens Hospital. The settlement agreement, which requires a payment of over $2.5 million, addresses allegations that a former physician at New York-Presbyterian/Queens performed services that were not medically necessary and then billed federal health care programs for those services. The services involved the replacement of implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) pulse generator batteries.
“This more than $2.5 million settlement rectifies that New York-Presbyterian/Queens was paid by the federal government for unnecessary procedures,” stated United States Attorney Peace. “This Office is committed to combatting fraud and abuse of our federal health care programs, especially when such conduct potentially puts patients at risk.”
Procedure Overview
An ICD is akin to a pacemaker. It is placed under a patient’s skin and is designed to ensure that the patient’s heart beats on a regular rhythm. ICDs run on batteries. Like all batteries, ICD batteries will eventually fail, which could lead to disastrous consequences, even death. But replacing an ICD battery involves a surgical procedure, which carries risk. Physicians closely monitor the functioning of ICD batteries so that they replace the batteries when they...
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