Beverly Hills plastic surgeon settles false claims

[ad_1]

LOS ANGELES A Beverly Hills plastic surgeon, along with his son, medical practices and a billing company, have agreed to pay $23.9 million to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by submitting or causing false claims to be submitted to both Medicare and Medicaid.

The settlement announced today resolves allegations that Dr. Joel Aronowitz; Daniel Aronowitz; Joel A. Aronowitz, MD, a medical company; Tower Multi-Specialty Medical Group; Tower Wound Care Center of Santa Monica, Inc.; Tower Ambulatory Surgical Center, Inc.; and Tower Medical Billing Solutions (the parties to the agreement) falsified the location of service for skin grafts and charged multiple times for single-use skin replacement products.

The United States alleges that the settling parties manipulated the location of service code on skin graft applications to fraudulently maximize Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement. The United States further contends that Dr. Aronowitz improperly disposed of unused portions of single-use skin graft materials and instead used them in subsequent procedures involving other Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, which has resulted in thousands of cases of double billing.

Our investigation uncovered a longstanding practice to illegally maximize profits, ultimately costing public health programs millions of dollars, U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said. Medicare and Medicaid are taxpayer-funded programs, and we are committed to eliminating the abuses that line the pockets of unscrupulous providers.

When health care providers violate federal health care program requirements, they compromise the integrity of those programs and waste taxpayers’ money, said Senior Assistant Deputy Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, Chief of the Civil Division of the Department of Justice. This regulation demonstrates the Department’s commitment to prevent suppliers from misappropriating public funds for their own personal gain.

As part of the settlement, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS OIG), negotiated the voluntary debarment of Dr. Aronowitz and the Tower Multi-Specialty Medical Group from Medicare, Medicaid and of all other federal health services. care programs for a period of 15 years. Daniel Aronowitz will be banned for three years.

HHS-OIG, along with our law enforcement partners, is committed to holding providers accountable for federal health care program fraud, said Special Agent in Charge Timothy B. DeFrancesca of the HHS-OIG. Those who blatantly exploit Medicare and Medicaid put personal financial gain ahead of patient needs and safety.

Medicaid is jointly funded by the states and the federal government. The State of California paid a portion of the Medicaid claims at issue and will receive a total of approximately $497,619 from the settlement.

The civil settlement includes the resolution of claims filed under the qui tam, or whistleblower, provisions of the False Claims Act by parties who worked for Dr. Aronowitz and his associated medical practices and businesses: TDP, a billing company; Dr. Jason Morris, podiatrist; and Harold Bautista, an employee in the billing department. Under the qui tam provisions, a private party can sue on behalf of the government and receive a portion of any recovery. The civil lawsuits, all of which were filed in federal court in Los Angeles, are captioned: United States ex rel. TDP RCM Servs., LLC c. Aronowitz, et al., USA ex rel. Morris, et al. v. Tower Wound Care Ctr. of Santa Monica, Inc., et al., and United States ex rel. Bautista et al. v. Tower Outpatient Surgery Center, Inc., et al. The amount to be recovered by the private parties has not been determined.

Related

[ad_2]