An Indian-American couple from Rockaway, New Jersey, who owned a mobile diagnostic testing company admitted Aug. 17, to receiving more than $4.3 million from Medicare and private insurance companies for thousands of false diagnostic tests and reports they submitted.
Nita K. Patel, 53, and Kirtish N. Patel, 53, pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge William H. Walls in Newark federal court to separate informations charging them each with one count of health care fraud. The health care fraud charge to which Nita and Kirtish Patel pleaded guilty carries a maximum potential penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense. Sentencing for both defendants is scheduled for March 15, according to U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Paul J. Fishman.
From 2006 through June 2014, Nita and Kirtish Patel owned and operated Biosound Medical Services Inc. and Heart Solutions of Parsippany, New Jersey. These were mobile diagnostic companies and approved Medicare providers.
The companies provided mobile diagnostic testing, including ultrasounds, echocardiograms and nerve conduction studies that were used to diagnose heart defects, blood clots, abdominal aortic aneurysms and other serious medical conditions.
Technicians employed by the company would travel to the office of a primary care physician in the New York and New Jersey area to conduct diagnostic testing, then sending the tests to a “reading physician”— a specialist who would interpret the results. After the reading physician prepared a report, the Patels’ companies were responsible for providing it to the referring physician. Biosound and Heart Solutions were paid millions of dollars by Medicare and other payors for the diagnostic testing, the reading physician’s interpretation of the results and the reports.
Kirtish Patel admitted to, from October 2008 through June 2014, fraudulently interpreting and writing diagnostic reports produced by the two companies despite having no medical license and knowing that the reports would be used by the referring physicians to make important patient treatment decisions.
Nita Patel admitted assisting her husband in forging physician signatures on the fraudulently produced reports to make them appear legitimate. Nita and Kirtish Patel also admitted falsely representing to Medicare that the neurological testing performed by their companies was being supervised by a licensed neurologist.
According to the informations, more than half of the diagnostic reports generated by their companies between October 2008 and June 2014 were never actually reviewed or interpreted by a physician. Nita and Kirtish Patel were paid more than $4,386,133.75 by Medicare and private insurance companies for the fraudulent reports, which they used for personal expenses, including multiple residences and luxury vehicles.
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