Feds" medical facility involved in kickbacks

By John Zucal, Managing Editor
ORANGE - Thirteen New Jersey doctors and a nurse practitioner were arrested Tuesday and charged in what federal prosecutors called a cash-for-tests referral scheme that involved a medical facility in Orange.
More than 60 agents from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services arrested the medical personnel Tuesday morning, said U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman. They were scheduled to appear before a federal judge Tuesday afternoon.
Fishman said federal prosecutors believe the medical personnel received monthly payment for sending patients to the radiology and diagnostic facility Orange Community MRI. The payments, claimed Fishman, were in exchange for the referral of Medicare and Medicaid patients for testing services.
The facility’s executive director, Chirag Patel, 36, of Warren, was arrested Dec. 8, in connection with the investigation, said Fishman. Patel was released that day on $750,000 bond.
All of the health care providers charged practice in New Jersey and have offices in Newark, Orange, East Orange, West Orange or Irvington. The alleged payments to or from each of the defendants ranged from $200 to more than $5,000 per month.
In complaints filed against each defendant, federal prosecutors claim OCM began making the payments to the medical personnel as early as 2010.
At the end of each month, said Fishman, individuals at the facility printed reports detailing how many tests were referred
by each of the defendants. Fishman alleged the reports were used to calculate the payment owed to each defendant.
Those payments, according to prosecutors, included those based on referrals for Medicare or Medicaid beneficiary diagnostic tests. The nature of the payments differed with each agreement, said Fishman; some of the doctors were only paid for MRI and CAT Scan referrals, others also received payments for other radiology tests.
According to Fishman, prosecutors and agents with the department’s Office of Inspector General uncovered 32 payments made to, or by, the defendants between early October and early December. The payments reportedly totaled $51,500, said Fishman.
“Selling test referrals for cash is illegal. Patients have every right to expect their doctors will recommend medical service providers because they do the best job, not because they provide the best bribes,” said Fishman. “There is no room in the federal health care system for those who see a person in need of care as an opportunity to make an extra buck on the side.”
“When physicians take kickbacks that influence how they practice medicine, it has the potential to taint the medical advice and care that is provided to their patients,”
Fishman continued. “The audacity of these physicians should offend honest taxpayers, especially at a time when our taxpayer resources are stretched thin. We will continue to aggressively pursue all angles of health care fraud.”
Each of the health care practitioners is charged with violating the federal health care program anti-kickback statute by soliciting and receiving bribes. The offense carries a maximum five-year prison term and $250,000 fine.