Free Republic

A California doctor was sentenced today to 93 months in prison for defrauding Medicare, re-packaging single-use catheters for re-use on patients, and submitting false declarations in a bankruptcy proceeding. According to court documents, Donald Woo Lee, 55, of Temecula, recruited Medicare beneficiaries to his clinics, falsely diagnosed the beneficiaries, and provided the beneficiaries with medically unnecessary procedures. Lee billed these unnecessary procedures to Medicare using an inappropriate code in order to obtain a higher reimbursement, a practice known as “upcoding.” In addition, the evidence showed that Lee re-packaged used, contaminated catheters for re-use on patients. These catheters had been cleared...

New Jersey surgeon's medical license has been temporarily suspended for allegedly reusing disposable anal catheters on multiple patients. Attorney General Christopher Porrino says East Brunswick, New jersey-based colon and rectal surgeon Dr Sanjiv Patankar allegedly washed and reused the one-use catheters that are inserted into patients during medical procedures. State officials say they have evidence that Patankar ordered only five catheters during time when he performed 82 procedures requiring them. The state Board of Medical Examiners unanimously voted to suspend the doctor's license last week, saying he 'placed patients in clear and imminent danger.' ... According to testimony from some...