Florida Cardiology, P.A., Sandeep Bajaj, Karan Reddy, and eight other physicians have agreed to pay the United States and the State of Florida $2 million to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by submitting inflated claims to Medicare and Medicaid and for billing while the physicians were outside the United States. The United States and the State of Florida previously intervened in a whistleblower lawsuit against Florida Cardiology and the physician-defendants on June 27, 2022. The lawsuit and settlement relate to the submission of claims that were improperly billed or performed, and submitted or caused to be submitted by Florida Cardiology, Sandeep Bajaj, Abbas Ali, Karan Reddy, Claudio Manubens, Milan Kothari, Saroj Tampira, Sayed Hussain,Raviprasad Subraya, Harish Patil, and Edwin Martinez.
According to the lawsuit and settlement agreement, Dr. Bajaj and Dr. Reddy caused Florida Cardiology to bill for more intravascular stents than were actually inserted into patients; Dr. Bajaj caused Florida Cardiology to bill for radiofrequency ablations that were not performed by him and in some instances, were not performed by a qualifying provider; and all ten physician-defendants caused Florida Cardiology to bill for procedures and services while they were outside the United States. According to the Complaint in Intervention, except in limited circumstances, providers cannot bill for services while outside the United States. According to the settlement agreement, Florida Cardiology submitted these false claims for payment to Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE, and the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program.
