A federal grand jury found a Southern California doctor guilty of seven counts of healthcare fraud in connection to a $12-million scheme to perform unnecessary medical procedures on Medicare beneficiaries, officials announced Thursday. Lee then provided beneficiaries with “medically unnecessary vein ablation procedures” and billed the procedures to Medicare “using inappropriate code in an attempt to obtain a higher reimbursement,” the Justice Department said. That tactic is known as “upcoding.”AdvertisementEvidence also showed that Lee repackaged used single-use catheters, the Justice Department said. More than 300 people were charged, including a pharmacist and several doctors and psychiatrists in Southern California. AdvertisementAccording to the Department of Justice, more than 4,200 people have been charged in fraud schemes since 2007.

Source: Los Angeles Times October 17, 2019 18:33 UTC