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Indian American doctor couple
charged with $31m fraud
WSN Network
WASHINGTON: An
Indian-American doctor couple in Houston has been charged with
illegally distributing 1.3 million tablets of a drug and defrauding
several public and private health insurance companies of $31 million
by filing false claims.
According to the
indictment returned by a federal grand jury on Thursday, Dr Arun
Sharma and his wife, Dr Kiran Sharma, both 54, operated the allergy,
asthma, arthritis and pain centers located on
Cole Street
in Webster, Texas, and another on Garth Road in Baytown, Texas.
The indictment
alleges that Dr Arun Sharma routinely saw in excess of 70 patients
per day and that he routinely wrote prescriptions for hydrocodone
that were not for a legitimate medical purpose in exchange for cash
payments, the Federal Bureau fo Investigation said in a press
release.
Dr Sharma
allegedly received the cash payments for his hydrocodone
prescriptions directly from the patient and he instructed his
patients to take the prescriptions to certain pharmacies to be
filled.
Arun and Kiran
Sharma, according to the indictment, stored large amounts of cash
received from the sale of hydrocodone prescriptions at their home.
Kiran Sharma allegedly transported large amounts of cash received
from the sale of the hydrocodone prescriptions to two safe deposit
boxes - one each at Bank of America and Prosperity Bank.
The doctors also
were charged with specific counts of illegal drug distribution for
hydrocodone prescriptions written to specific patients.
Both doctors are
also accused of conspiring to defraud Medicare, Medicaid and private
healthcare insurers including Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas,
Aetna, Cigna and United Healthcare of more than $31 million for
facet joint injections and other medical procedures that were
allegedly never performed.
The court has
ordered summons to be issued directing the Sharmas to appear in
federal court for arraignment on August 3, 2009.
Upon conviction,
each of the 17 health care fraud counts and the healthcare
conspiracy charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in a federal
prison and a $250,000 fine.
The drug
conspiracy and each of the 10 drug distribution counts carries a
penalty of five years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine. Parole has
been abolished in the federal prison system.
22
July 2009
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