>>513187729>arum sharma medicare fraudArun Sharma Medicare Fraud
Drs. Arun and Kiran Sharma, a married couple operating Allergy, Asthma, Arthritis and Pain Centers in Baytown and Webster, Texas, were involved in a decade-long scheme to defraud Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers.
From January 1, 1998, through June 10, 2009, they fraudulently billed over $31 million for medical procedures, primarily pain management injections, that were either not performed or misrepresented.
While some patients received trigger-point injections, the Sharmas billed insurers for more expensive procedures like facet joint and paravertebral injections, a practice known as "upcoding".
The scheme expanded over time, with the doctors seeing up to 109 patients per day in 2005.
They required patients to sign blank or falsified procedure notes, which were later used to generate bills for services never rendered.
Foreign medical graduates hired by Dr. Kiran Sharma helped fabricate patient records to support the fraudulent claims.
At sentencing, the court ordered restitution of over $43 million to 32 victims, including Medicare and Medicaid.
Arun Sharma pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of health care fraud on April 26, 2010.
He was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison and ordered to forfeit more than $43 million in assets, including cash, real estate, and investment accounts.
His wife, Kiran Sharma, pleaded guilty to the same charges and received an eight-year sentence.
The case resulted from a joint investigation by the FBI, DEA, HHS-Office of Inspector General, and other agencies.