19 Indians indicted in massive health care fraud in US

New York, Aug 3 (PTI) A federal grand jury in the US
has indicted 26 people, including 19 Indians, for their
participation in a multi-million dollar health care fraud and
drug distribution scheme to facilitate the submission of false
claims to Medicaid and private insurers.
The indictment returned by a federal grand jury in
Detroit charged 26 individuals, including doctors and
psychologists, United States Attorney Barbara McQuade
announced on Wednesday.
An Indian-origin pharmacist is accused of being at the
center of the conspiracy.
The 34-count indictment alleges that 49-year old
pharmacist Babubhai Patel, the beneficial owner and controller
of some 26 pharmacies, concealed his ownership and control
over many of the Patel Pharmacies through the use of straw
owners.
The indictment alleges that Patel would offer and pay
kickbacks, bribes and other inducements to physicians, in
order to induce those physicians to write prescriptions for
patients with Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance, and
to direct that those prescriptions be presented to one of the
Patel Pharmacies for billing.
"Today's arrests and the allegations in the indictment
bring to light one of the largest diversion conspiracies ever
uncovered in the state of Michigan. These individuals abused
their positions of trust and endangered the lives of countless
people by illegally distributing more than six million doses
of opiate painkillers and depressants throughout southeast
Michigan and beyond," Special Agent in Charge of Drug
Enforcement Administration’s Detroit Field Division Robert
Corso said.
The indictment further alleges the individuals
conspired to distribute controlled substances at the Patel
pharmacies, in order to facilitate the submission of false and
fraudulent claims to Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers.
Patel and his associates paid physicians and
podiatrists associated with the scheme, kickbacks and other
inducements in exchange for the medical professionals writing
prescriptions for controlled substances for their patients,
and directing those patients to fill the prescriptions at a
Patel Pharmacy.
Patel Pharmacies billed the Medicare programme not
less than USD 37.7 million for medications purportedly
provided to Medicare beneficiaries since January 2006 and not
less than 20.8 million dollars for medications purportedly
provided to Medicaid beneficiaries over the course of the
scheme.
In addition to Patel, those named in the 34-count
indictment are physician Paul Petre, pharmacists Dineshkmar
Patel, Anish Bhavsar, Ashwini Sharma, Pinakeen Patel, Kartik
Shah, Viral Thaker, Hiren Patel, Miteshkumar Patel, Lokeh
Tayal, Narendera Cheraku and Chetan Gujarathi.
Arpitkumar Patel, Sumanray Raval, Harpreet Sachdeva,
Ramesh Patel, Rana Naeem, physician Mustak Vaid, psychologist
and patient recruiter Sanyani Edwards and business associate
Komal Acharya have also been named in the indictment.