California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a settlement against a Southern California doctor for submitting false claims to Medicare and Medi-Cal between the years of 2011 and 2018 for drugs, procedures, services, and tests that were never administered to patients. As part of the settlement, Dr. Kochumian will pay a total of more than $9.48 million with the state of California receiving $630,099 of that sum, plus accrued interest. Dr. Kochumian is an internal medicine practitioner who owned and operated a medical clinic located in Northridge, California. The case was filed in the Eastern District of California, in October 2017 under the qui tam or whistleblower provisions of the California and Federal False Claims Acts. The qui tam suit, filed by two whistleblowers, Dr. Kochumian’s former medical assistant and his former informational technology consultant, alleged that between November 2011 and April 2018, Dr. Kochumian defrauded Medi-Cal by knowingly billing for medical services, tests, and procedures which were not provided to patients. As part of their share of the California settlement, the qui tam plaintiffs will receive $116,568.
In October 2021, the California Department of Justice’s Division of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse (DMFEA) and the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California intervened in the qui tam lawsuit following a joint investigation into Dr. Kochumian’s billing practices. During the course of the investigation, documentation from Kochumian’s office had revealed five categories of medical services which were the focus of the fraudulent billing schemes. These included X-rays/ultrasounds, allergy tests, various skin treatments, routine medication injections, and injections of specific high-cost medications. As part of the settlement, the state of California will receive $630,099 — double the damages which were incurred by Medi-Cal. Dr. Kochumian’s fraudulent billing practices were also the subject of an independent federal criminal investigation initiated by a healthcare fraud strike team based in the Central District of California. The investigation culminated in Dr. Kochumian pleading guilty to one count of federal healthcare fraud, and on May 2, 2022, he was sentenced to a prison term of three years and five months and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $5.4 million.
