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An Indian American physician in Maryland was sentenced to more than nine years in prison for health care fraud April 11.
Paramjit Singh Ajrawat, 60, of Potomac, Maryland, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow to 111 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release for health care fraud, two counts of making a false statement related to a health care program, one count of obstruction of justice, four counts of wire fraud, and one count of aggravated identity theft related to a health care fraud scheme in connection with the pain clinic he owned and operated with his wife. Judge Chasanow also entered an order requiring Ajrawat to forfeit and pay restitution of $3,103,874.58.
“This lengthy sentence sends a powerful message that doctors who defraud health insurance programs will be held accountable,” said U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein.
Ajrawat was a licensed physician in Maryland who specialized in interventional pain management. He and his wife owned and operated Washington Pain Management Center (WPMC) located in Greenbelt. A federal jury convicted Ajrawat and his wife, Sukhveen Kaur Ajrawat, age 57, also a medical doctor, on September 4, 2015. The government moved to dismiss the charges against Sukhveen Ajrawat after her death on February 1 this year.
Evidence at the eight day trial revealed that from at least January 2011 through May 2014, the Ajrawats defrauded federal health benefit programs including: Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE, Federal Employees Health Benefits Program and the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs. The Ajrawats filed claims for procedures that were not performed. They performed less expensive procedures but billed for procedures that got them higher reimbursements. The Ajrawats also submitted claims indicating that they had met the requirements for reimbursement, when in fact, they had not met those requirements. Finally, the Ajrawats submitted claims for procedures that had not been performed at all.
For example, the Ajrawats submitted claims that Paramjit Ajrawat had performed nerve block injections with the use of an imaging guidance machine, but Paramjit Ajrawat neither owned nor used such a machine. The Ajrawats also falsely documented patient files to indicate that an imaging guidance machine had been used to verify needle placement. They also altered or destroyed patient files to conceal the scheme from auditors and law enforcement.
The post Doctor Sentenced to More Than Nine Years for $3.1 Million Health Care Fraud appeared first on News India Times.
