A New York vascular surgeon and his medical practice agreed to pay $783,200 to resolve a civil case alleging fraudulent billing, the U.S. Justice Department said March 8.
According to prosecutors, Feng Qin, MD, and Qin Medical PC fraudulently billed Medicare for vascular surgery procedures performed on end-stage renal disease patients that were not covered under Medicare rules or were not medically reasonable or necessary.
In addition to the payment, Dr. Qin agreed to enter a Voluntary Exclusion Agreement with HHS, prohibiting him from participating in Medicare and other federal healthcare programs for four years.
As part of the settlement, Dr. Qin also admitted to routinely scheduling and treating end-stage renal disease patients every three months regardless of medical need, treating those patients with fistulagrams and angioplasties even though there was insufficient evidence to justify the treatments and filing false claims to Medicare, knowing that Medicare wouldn't pay for the fistulagrams and angioplastes without required clinical justification.
Dr. Qin was criminally charged for the scheme in December 2018, and the U.S. filed a civil complaint against him later that same month.
The government agreed to defer Dr. Qin's criminal prosecution for one year. If he abides by the terms of his deferred prosecution agreement, the U.S. will seek to dismiss the criminal charges.
In addition to the $783,200 settlement announced March 8, the state of New York is expected to enter into an additional settlement with Dr. Qin and the medical practice in the amount of $16,800.