A Wilmington physician agrees to pay over $1 million to resolve allegations that he ordered medically unnecessary medical equipment and violated the False Claims Act.
Dr. Vishar Patel referred patients for more than 1750 various wrist, ankle and back braces, and the U.S. Department of Justice alleges Dr. Patel had no medical relationship with the patients.
The equipment was covered by Medicare and the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, which paid on average more than $400 for each device.
The patient files were provided to Dr. Patel by RediDoc, a purported telemedicine company whose owners pleaded guilty to participation in a $64 million health care fraud conspiracy in May 2022.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware David Weiss says RediDoc is a fraudulent company that relies on licensed healthcare providers to make their operations appear legitimate and avoid detection.
“By ordering services for patients they have never examined or treated, these providers permit fraud schemes to flourish and drain vital funds from Medicare and other government healthcare programs. In conjunction with our law enforcement partners, this office will continue to use all available means to identify healthcare providers who increase costs through unnecessary orders and hold them accountable," Weiss said.
"For more than a year, Dr. Patel schemed to deceive and repeatedly lied to further his greed. His blatant and unscrupulous abuse of the healthcare system led to an exorbitant amount of fraud,” said Special Agent in Charge William J. DelBagno of the FBI Baltimore Field Office. "Healthcare fraud takes money away from legitimate patients and needs, affecting the reliability of our programs, which is why the FBI is committed to bringing fraud to light and perpetrators like Dr. Patel to justice.”
DOJ’s claims have been put to rest due to the settlement, meaning it was not determined if Dr. Patel was liable for medical equipment fraud.
