Indian-American couple arrested on charges of healthcare fraud

Washington, Jun 10: An Indian-American couple was

in New Jersey on charges of healthcare fraud and later released on a USD 100,000 bond, a US attorney said.

Nita K Patel (51) and Kirtish N Patel (51), owners and operators of Biosound Medical Services and Heart Solutions of Parsippany, have been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a USD 250,000 fine.

Arrested from their residence in New Jersey yesterday morning, the Patel couple was released on a USD 100,000 unsecured bond, with travel restricted to New Jersey unless given prior approval by pretrial services. Also, they have been asked to surrender their passports.

In their complaint, prosecutors alleged that about half of diagnostic reports generated by Biosound in the past two years had a photocopied signature from a reading physician when no physician had actually seen, reviewed or interpreted the results.

Rather than pay compensation to a reading physician, Kirtish allegedly would interpret the diagnostic results himself Nita would either photocopy or electronically cut and paste a physician's signature onto a diagnostic report that was drafted by an employee of Biosound and forwarded to the referring physician who ordered the testing.

PTI