293 patients filed lawsuits against Dr Arvind Gandhi and Dr Satyaprakash Makam.
By Sreekanth A Nair
The Indiana state Medicaid program has started investigation against three doctors including two Indian Americans for allegedly performing unneeded surgery on patients. Some 293 patients around Munster, a small town in Indiana, have filed lawsuits against them.
Cardiologists Dr Arvind Gandhi, 65, his partners Dr Satyaprakash Makam, 61, and Dr Wail Asfour were alleged of the fraud. They have received $5 million in combined Medicare payments in 2012. With this they became the three most reimbursed cardiologists in Indiana, reported The New York Times.
The complainants have also requested the foundation that oversees the operations of the Community Hospital in Munster for a detailed enquiry about the institution’s involvement in the alleged malpractice. Dr Gandhi was one of the chief doctors in the hospital.
The report has also added that the doctors have invested in luxury apartments in Chicago and in a local restaurant.
“I had received a subpoena from the United States attorney’s office and provided the medical charts of several former patients of Gandhi and his colleagues that he has since treated”, a doctor was quoted by NYT as saying.
The legal advisors of Dr Gandhi and the Community Hospital said that the lawsuits are without merit. The legal actions were being driven by envious physicians eager to take patients from him and by greedy lawyers seeking a big settlement, they added.
In 2008, a physician had raised similar accusations against Dr Gandhi and the hospital. The US attorney’s office in Hammond, Indiana, had also joined the lawsuit and it was settled for $48,942 without finding anyone guilty.