The United States has reached agreements with several individuals and entities to resolve allegations of improper billing for medical imaging services at a surgical hospital in El Paso. Desert Imaging Services, L.P., In Tandem Solutions Group, LLC, and Leroy Candelaria agreed to pay the United States $693,913; Donald Burris and Vox Intus, LLC agreed to forfeit $325,000; and East El Paso Physician’s Medical Center, LLC, doing business as Foundation Surgical Hospital of El Paso, agreed to entry of a consent judgment in the amount of $2,081,739. The United States alleged that the settling parties engaged in an illegal kickback and pass-through billing scheme in which Desert Imaging used Foundation Surgical Hospital’s National Provider Identifier (NPI) to submit claims for medical imaging services. Although the patients who received these services had no connection with the hospital, billing the claims as hospital outpatient services allowed Desert Imaging to obtain a higher rate of reimbursement from Federal healthcare programs. In exchange for letting Desert Imaging use its NPI, Foundation Surgical Hospital retained 17% of payments on the claims.
