Puri’s Engage Medical, Inc. caught along with 3 other companies.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: US-India Political Action Committee (USINPAC) Chairman and local community leader Sanjay Puri is being fined over half a million dollars by the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland, as part of a sting on four clinics owned by desis that are being fined a total of $3.3 million.
Related Story: No finding of liability with Engage Medical, Sanjay Puri in fraudulent billing settlement case, clarifies DoJ
According to a press release put out by the Department of Justice, the four medical practices over billed for nuclear stress tests, asking for more money in compensation than they were actually owed. The fraudulent activity occurred between July 31, 2007 and March 8, 2011, throughout the Washington, DC/southern Maryland/northern Virginia metropolitan area.
“Baltimore, Maryland B Medical billing company Engage Medical, Inc. […] and [owner] Sanjay Puri have agreed to pay $544,500; Advanced Cardiology Center and its owners Pankaj Lal, M.D., Mubashar Choudry, M.D. and Moshin Ijaz, M.D. agreed to pay $1,894,549.50; Reva Gill, M.D. and Kenilworth Internists, P.A. agreed to pay $242,204; and Sureshkumar Muttath, M.D. agreed to pay $659,726,” says the DoJ press release, adding to a total of $3,340,979.
Lal is a cardiologist based in Rockville, Maryland with degrees from the Maulana Azad Medical College and LNJP Hospital, both of which are in New Delhi. Choudry is also a cardiologist, and earned his medical degree from the Allama Iqbal Medical College in Lahore, while Ijaz earned his degree from the King Edward Medical College in Lahore, too. Gill is a specialist in internal medicine at Kenilworth Internists, located in Riverdale, Maryland, as is Muttath.
“When medical providers can enrich themselves at taxpayers’ expense by falsely representing that they provided expensive procedures, the government must be vigilant in pursuing fraudulent claims,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein. “Anyone who knowingly reports false medical billing codes to induce the government to pay more money is lying, cheating and stealing.”
The press release indicates that Engage Medical was at the top of the scheme, and contracted with the other three clinics in 2009 to expand its operation. The report of such malfeasance on the part of Puri, however, is particularly jarring, as he is considered a leader of the local desi community and was at the vanguard for improving the ties between India and the US.
Puri is also the founder and CEO of Optimos Inc., an IT firm based in Reston, Virginia, just outside of the nation’s capital. He is also the founder and president of the Alliance for US-India Business (AUSIB), and has been featured in The New York Times, CNN, and National Public Radio. Most recently, he has been one of the key figures spearheading the movement to get BJP candidate Narendra Modi a US visa.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com