Indian cardiologists in healthcare fraud

CLEVELAND, OH – An Indian American cardiologist duo in Cleveland, Ohio, has been charged with healthcare fraud and prescribing drugs illegally.

Dr. Ashis Rakhit and Dr Jayati Rakhit practiced at several different clinics in Cleveland, Parma and Strongsville under the name Ohio Cardiology Associates Inc.

According to a federal indictment, since 2011, the couple began performing tests their patients did not need, then billing insurance and Medicare for the money they cost.

“They were performing medically unnecessary tests, including cardiac catherizations, nuclear stress tests, EKG,” said US Attorney Justin Herdman.

“They were then fraudulently billing for those services to insurance companies, and doing what’s called up-coding on the services, so getting a higher reimbursement for the services they performed,” Herdman said.

The indictment also alleges that the Rakhits would falsify information in patients’ records, including adding symptoms in their official files, symptoms the pair did not have.

The doctors were additionally charged with prescribing medications to patients whose symptoms indicated they did not need the drugs, including Tramadol, Percocet and Xanax, it is learnt.

If convicted on all charges, the couple could spend 20 years in prison.