Monday, March 8, 2021

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Announces Resolution Of Civil And Criminal Healthcare Fraud Charges Against Vascular Surgeon For Fraudulently Billing Medicare For Medically Unnecessary Procedures

 

Dr. Feng Qin Agrees to Pay $800,000, Admits Misconduct, and Receives Four-Year Ban from Participating in Federal Healthcare Programs

 Audrey Strauss, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Scott Lampert, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General’s (“HHS-OIG”) New York Region, announced today that the civil and criminal healthcare fraud cases against FENG QIN, M.D. (“QIN”), a vascular surgeon, and his medical practice QIN MEDICAL P.C. (“QIN MEDICAL”) have been resolved.  QIN, who practiced in Lower Manhattan and Far Rockaway, Queens, was criminally charged in December 2018 with fraudulently billing Medicare for vascular surgery procedures performed on end-stage renal disease (“ESRD”) patients that were not medically reasonable and necessary or covered under Medicare rules; the United States also filed a civil healthcare fraud complaint against QIN and QIN MEDICAL in December 2018. 

Under the civil settlement approved today by U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain, QIN and QIN MEDICAL agreed to a pay $783,200 to the United States.  The State of New York is expected soon to enter into an additional settlement with defendants in the amount of $16,800, for a total recovery of $800,000.  The amount is based on the Office’s assessment of the defendants’ ability to pay based on the financial information they provided.  As part of the settlement, QIN and QIN MEDICAL admitted and accepted responsibility for conduct alleged by the Government in its civil complaint as further described below.  QIN previously paid $150,000 to settle a prior civil fraud lawsuit filed against him and his previous employer for engaging in fraudulent billing practices during the time period 2010 through 2012.

QIN also entered into a Voluntary Exclusion Agreement with HHS-OIG, which prohibits him from participating in Medicare and other federal healthcare programs for four years.  This is in addition to the more than two years he has been so excluded since his arrest, as a condition of his bail.  The Government has agreed to defer QIN’s criminal prosecution for a period of one year, after which time it will seek to dismiss the charges if QIN abides by the terms of the deferred prosecution agreement.    

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said:  “For several years, Dr. Qin performed interventional vascular procedures on patients with end-stage renal disease without any documented clinical justification.  As a repeat offender, Dr. Qin now faces a lengthy suspension from participating in federal healthcare programs and must make a hefty monetary payment.  This Office will continue to hold unscrupulous medical providers accountable when they perform and bill the Government for medically unnecessary procedures.”

HHS-OIG Special Agent in Charge Scott Lampert said:  “By billing Medicare for medically unnecessary procedures, Dr. Qin needlessly compromised patient care and victimized taxpayers.  Our agency will continue to hold medical professionals accountable, while protecting the federal health care programs intended for those that depend on them for critical services.”

According to the indictment and the Government’s civil complaint:

Patients with ESRD who are receiving dialysis may require vascular access surgical procedures, such as fistulagrams, where dye is injected into the patient’s vein or artery to visualize blood flow, and percutaneous transluminal angioplasties, in which wires and balloons are inserted into blood vessels that have narrowed in order to restore blood flow.  However, as Medicare billing guidelines made clear, it is not reasonable and necessary for physicians to bill the program for fistulagrams and angioplasties unless the patient has specific and documented clinical problems, such as significant difficulty receiving dialysis properly. 

The patients at QIN’s medical practice primarily consisted of ESRD patients undergoing dialysis treatment.  During the relevant period, from 2015 to 2016, QIN routinely scheduled patients for fistulagrams and angioplasties three months in advance, and performed fistulagrams and angioplasties on these patients as a matter of routine, regardless of whether there was a justifiable clinical reason to do so.  Furthermore, on multiple occasions he misrepresented the medical conditions of patients in their medical records to make it seem as if they suffered from symptoms that would warrant the procedures when they did not.  QIN MEDICAL then unlawfully billed and received payment from Medicare for these procedures, which were excluded from Medicare coverage, as QIN knew.

As part of the civil settlement, QIN and QIN MEDICAL admit, acknowledge, and accept responsibility for the following conduct:

  • QIN often routinely scheduled, and actually saw, ESRD patients approximately every three months, regardless of their medical need.
     
  • QIN treated many of his ESRD patients with fistulagrams and angioplasties.  The symptoms documented in the medical records, including the records of the dialysis center and the treating nephrologist, were insufficient to justify these treatments for numerous ESRD patients.
     
  • QIN knew that in the absence of a documented clinical justification, Medicare would not pay for fistulagrams or angioplasties.  Nevertheless on numerous occasions, QIN MEDICAL sought and received reimbursement from Medicare for these treatments without the required documented clinical justification. 

The allegations of fraud stated in the civil complaint were first brought to the attention of federal law enforcement by a whistleblower who filed a lawsuit under the False Claims Act.

The criminal case is being handled by the Office’s General Crimes Unit.  Assistant United States Attorneys Jean-David Barnea, Michael Krouse, and Alexander Li are in charge of the criminal prosecution.  The civil case is being handled by the Office’s Civil Frauds Unit, and Assistant United States Attorney Barnea is in charge of the matter.

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