by Ben Vernia | January 7th, 2014
On January 7, the Department of Justice announced that a doctor based in Tampa has agreed to pay $400,000 to settle claims, originally brought by a former employee as a whistleblower, that he and his practice submitted false claims for vein procedures. According to DOJ’s press release:
A Florida-based physician, Dr. Ravi Sharma, has agreed to pay $400,000 to resolve allegations that he and his clinics violated the False Claims Act by knowingly billing Medicare for vein injections and physician office visits performed by unqualified personnel, the Justice Department announced today.
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The government alleged that, between 2009 and 2010, Sharma owned and operated a clinic in the Tampa area called Premier Vein Centers. Beginning in 2009, Sharma allegedly sent text messages to his office manager instructing her to perform varicose vein injections on patients when he was not in the office. The government further alleged that, when Sharma was in the office, he performed unnecessary vein injections and unnecessary ultrasound imaging procedures associated with those vein injections.
Sharma also owned and operated, between 2009 and 2010, a weight loss clinic in the Tampa area called Life’s New Image. Allegedly, unqualified personnel met with patients of the clinic, but Sharma billed those visits as physician office visits using his own Medicare provider number. Sharma closed Premier Vein Centers and Life’s New Image in 2010.
The government also announced that the doctor had agreed to a three-year integrity agreement with the Office of Inspector General of HHS. The relator will receive $72,000 (an 18% share), DOJ announced.
