Two cardiologists pay $380K to settle fraud case

Two cardiologists in Kentucky agreed to pay $380,000 in the culmination of a whistleblower case that led to a $16.5 million settlement and a prison term for a third cardiologist.

The Department of Justice (DoJ) claimed that Satyabrata Chatterjee, MD, and Ashwini Anand, MD, and Saint Joseph Hospital, all of London, Ky., devised a sham agreement that steered payments to physicians for services they did not provide. Physicians at Cumberland Clinic, which Chatterjee and Anand jointly owned, also allegedly referred patients to the hospital for cardiology procedures.

The DoJ charged these actions were in violation of the Stark Law and the anti-kickback provisions.

In January of 2014, the hospital agreed to pay $16.5 million to settle claims that physicians at its facility performed unnecessary invasive cardiac procedures such as PCIs, CABG and diagnostic catheterizations on Medicare and Medicaid patients between Jan. 1, 2008, and Aug. 31, 2011. The hospital admitted no wrong doing.

Cardiologist Sandesh Patil, MD, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to federal prison.

Cardiologists Michael Jones, MD, Paula Hollingsworth, MD, and Michael Rukavina, MD, had filed a complaint about the alleged scheme. They received about $2.5 million in the hospital settlement and will share $68,400 in this latest settlement.