Fw: Fraud in Nerve Conduction Testing

[Guest guest]

Dear colleagues we have a very similar situation here in Oregon. Companies are willing to fly in techs to perform mobile " nerve conduction testing " with the fees being charge that are up to 10Xs the normal fees for EMG/NCV testing. Doctors are being told they will recieve from $1000 to $1500 per patient for a " tech component, " yet do nothing and the " lease agreement " for the mobile equipment makes it all very " legal. " Oh ya BTW I have some Florida swamp land I'll sell at a really really really super price too!!

Dear colleagues I beseech you all don't even go there, if you do, if you have, your are currently under both state and federal scrutiny. If I can help if you have any questions regarding any company who has contacted you call me ASAP.

Vern Saboe, DC., DACAN., FICC

ACA Delegate

541-926-3162

[CFSgroup] OH DCOhio Court Finds DC Guilty of Accepting Illegal Kickbacks Cleveland, Ohio - A United States District judge has sentenced an Ohio chiropractor for his participation in a conspiracy and for his receipt of illegal kickbacks for referrals of patients. Judge Kathleen Mc O'Malley sentenced the chiropractor to six months of home confinement and two years of probation and ordered him to pay more than $140,000 in restitution to various governmental and private insurers, including the Medicare program. He also was ordered to perform 300 hours of community service, along with a $150 community service fee, to pay the costs of his confinement, to reimburse the government $3,850 for the cost of medical and statistical experts needed during the investigation, and to pay the court a $200 special assessment. The chiropractor's sentence followed his guilty pleas to the following: o one count of conspiring to solicit and receive kickbacks for medical referrals, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 371; and o one count of soliciting and receiving kickbacks for medical referrals, in violation of Title 42, United States Code, Section 1320-a-7b((1), also known as the federal Antikickback Statute. The charges and the defendant's guilty plea arose out of the defendant's business relationship with Diagnostic Testing of Ohio, Inc. (DTO), an now-defunct, Akron, Ohio-based mobile-medical laboratory. As part of his plea, the defendant admitted that between 1994 and 1997, he conspired with DTO and others to receive kickbacks in return for patient referrals and orders of electrodiagnostic tests. The doctor and DTO effected the conspiracy by entering into agreements disguised as " lease agreements " that were in fact agreements to exchange kickbacks for patient referrals and orders of tests. Payments were determined in a manner that took into account the volume or value of the referrals and business that the chiropractor would generate. In addition, the payments the doctor received under the " leases " bore no resemblance to the fair-market value of the " space " supposedly being " rented. " At sentencing, O'Malley stated that " a conclusion clearly has to be drawn " that the doctor subjected his patients to medically unnecessary and excessive testing. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States attorney Subodh Chandra, following investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The case is part of a series of prosecutions addressing corrupt relationships between various medical service and product providers and physicians in the Northern District of Ohio. The investigation has thus far resulted in guilty pleas by eight physicians and four other medical service and product providers; the investigation continues. -- Warren T. Jahn, DC, MPS, FACO Board Certified Chiropractic Orthopedist and Sports Physician Forensic Examiner Roswell GA 30076 770-740-1999 770-619-3203 fax One learns people through the heart, not the eyes or the intellect. - Mark Twain