Neurosurgeon Sagi M. Kuznits, practice director Pnina Kuznits, and Neurosurgical Care LLC (collectively, “Kuznits”), have agreed to pay $1,017,375.03 to resolve liability under the False Claims Act for the alleged improper billing of electro-acupuncture devices called Stivax and/or P-Stim and a memory-loss device called eVox.
From February 2017 through July 2018, Kuznits billed Medicare, TRICARE, and the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program for the implantation of neuro-stimulators — a surgical procedure which usually requires an operating room and which is reimbursed by federal healthcare programs — when in fact the only procedures performed had been the non-surgical application of P-Stim and Stivax by a physician assistant. P-Stim and Stivax are applied with an adhesive and insertion of a limited number of needles, and they do not involve surgery, anesthesia, or take place in an operating room. Federal healthcare programs do not reimburse for devices such as P-Stim or Stivax, whether they are characterized as an electro-acupuncture device or as an implantable neuro-stimulator.
In addition, Kuznits billed Medicare for a physician assistant’s application of an “eVox” device. Kuznits submitted claims to Medicare for payment using a combination of six reimbursable codes apparently in an effort to maximize reimbursement. The United States alleges that Medicare does not reimburse for eVox as billed, and especially not when one diagnostic test is misbilled under multiple codes as if it were multiple different tests.
