Indian-origin doctor to pay $14 million to settle allegations against him in US; performed unnecessary procedures

An Indian-origin doctor in Georgia agreed to pay $15 million to settle medical fraud allegations against him.

Indian-origin urologist Jitesh Patel will have to pay $14 million to settle allegations against him that he defrauded healthcare programs by performing unnecessary procedures on his patients. An employee of Patel’s Advance Urology in Georgia filed a whistleblower complaint that they were performing procedures and tests that were not medically necessary. Another former employee also turned into a whistleblower and confirmed that Advanced Urology was “designed to maximize revenue for Dr Patel and others by performing medically unnecessary procedures and tests”, according to court documents. They implanted some devices in patients without determining whether the patients would benefit from the device; they performed unnecessary tests, which involved placing a patient under anesthesia; they also ordered thousands of unnecessary ultrasound tests, mandating every new patient to undergo one test, which is rarely used in urology practices. They also billed for some procedures that they never performed, the allegations said. The US attorney’s office, FBI, the Department of Health and Human Services and several other departments investigated the case. “Physicians commit fraud when they seek payment for medically unnecessary procedures or bill for services they never performed,” said US Attorney Theodore S Hertzberg. “Our office will not tolerate abuse of patients or misuse of government funds, and we will enforce the False Claims Act to hold wrongdoers accountable.”Under the False Claims Act, private citizens may bring suit for false claims on behalf of the United States and share in any recovery obtained by the government. The Relators will collectively receive $2,940,000 from the settlement. The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability.The lawsuits did not reveal if the unnecessary procedures resulted in any health problems for the patients. Dr Patel is considered a leader in this field and received several awards like Atlanta top doc, Top 40 and under 40 etc. He studied medicine from the Temple University Schools of Medicine.