Docs to pay $3.6 m: billing fraud case

BY A STAFF WRITER

NEW YORK — Two Indian American cardiologists, Dr. Jasjit Walia, and Dr. Preet Randhawa, involved in a billing fraud have finally thrown in the towel.

The doctor duo, who owns and runs Garden State Cardiovascular Specialists P.C. (Garden State), has agreed to shell out $3.6 million to resolve allegations that its facilities falsely billed federal health care programs for tests that were not medically necessary.

Garden State is a cardiology practice which owns and operates several facilities in New Jersey under the name NJ MedCare/NJ Heart.

US Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced that the settlement resolved allegations that Garden State and its principals, Walia and Randhawa, submitted claims to Medicare for various cardiology diagnostic tests and procedures, like stress tests, cardiac catheterizations, etc which were not medically necessary.

The allegations were raised in a lawsuit filed under the qui tam, or whistleblower, provisions of the False Claims Act.

The Act allows private citizens with knowledge of fraud to bring civil actions on behalf of the government and to share in any recovery. The whistleblower, Cheryl Mazurek, will receive more than $648,000 as part of the settlement.