12 Medical Practices and a Physician-Owner to Pay Over $7.4 Million to Resolve Claims of Improper Billing of Medicare and the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program for Acupuncture Procedures
Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Scott J. Lampert, Special Agent-in-Charge, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General, New York Region (HHS-OIG), and Norbert E. Vint, Deputy Inspector General, Office of Personnel Management (OPM), announced today that 12 surgery centers and medical offices affiliated with Interventional Pain Management Center P.C. (“IPMC”), a company owned by Dr. Amit Poonia, have agreed to pay $7,447,340.75 to resolve liability under the False Claims Act for claims submitted to federal health care programs for acupuncture treatment.
“This settlement holds the defendants accountable for mischaracterizing acupuncture as a surgical procedure in order to dishonestly obtain millions of dollars from Medicare and the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program,” said United States Attorney Peace. “Working with our partners at the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General and the Office of Personnel Management, we identified the false claims that enabled our Office to negotiate resolutions that resulted in a significant recovery of taxpayer dollars.”
“Medical professionals are expected to bill taxpayer funded health care programs correctly to ensure that they remain...
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