Post by Freehol Resident on Sept 28, 2006 19:26:28 GMT -5
Freehold physician indicted in Medicare, insurance scam
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
BY MARYANN SPOTO
Star-Ledger Staff
A state grand jury yesterday indicted a Freehold physician on charges he duped Medicare and three insurance companies out of more than $580,000 by submitting false treatment claims.
The indictment charged Fredric Feit with two counts of health care claims fraud and one count of theft by deception in a scam that spanned eight years, said Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Greta Gooden Brown.
Feit, who operated a medical practice known as Modern Pain Therapy on Center Street in Freehold, allegedly submitted claims for costly pain relief injections on a number of patients when he actually performed less expensive and less invasive procedures on them, Brown said.
From the "up-coding," as the scam is called, Medicare program, Aetna Insurance Co., Blue Cross/ Blue Shield and Empire Insurance Co. paid out $589,850 between Jan. 1, 1996 and Dec. 31, 2004, the indictment said.
Blue Cross and Empire reported that they paid out $405,000 for the procedures during that time when the less invasive procedures, using smaller needles injecting Demerol or morphine into muscles, would have cost them $24,000, said Peter Aseltine, a spokesman for the state Attorney General's Office.
Feit, 57, of Manalapan, also is accused of writing phony prescrip tions for one patient in order to ob tain the morphine and Demerol used for the other patients, Asel tine said. He would not specify the number of patients whose proce dures were up-coded without their knowledge.
Gregory Paw, director of the state Division of Criminal Justice said the indictment will go to the state Board of Medical Examiners to determine whether to suspend or revoke Feit's medical license.
The charges carry a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a $150,000 fine.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
BY MARYANN SPOTO
Star-Ledger Staff
A state grand jury yesterday indicted a Freehold physician on charges he duped Medicare and three insurance companies out of more than $580,000 by submitting false treatment claims.
The indictment charged Fredric Feit with two counts of health care claims fraud and one count of theft by deception in a scam that spanned eight years, said Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Greta Gooden Brown.
Feit, who operated a medical practice known as Modern Pain Therapy on Center Street in Freehold, allegedly submitted claims for costly pain relief injections on a number of patients when he actually performed less expensive and less invasive procedures on them, Brown said.
From the "up-coding," as the scam is called, Medicare program, Aetna Insurance Co., Blue Cross/ Blue Shield and Empire Insurance Co. paid out $589,850 between Jan. 1, 1996 and Dec. 31, 2004, the indictment said.
Blue Cross and Empire reported that they paid out $405,000 for the procedures during that time when the less invasive procedures, using smaller needles injecting Demerol or morphine into muscles, would have cost them $24,000, said Peter Aseltine, a spokesman for the state Attorney General's Office.
Feit, 57, of Manalapan, also is accused of writing phony prescrip tions for one patient in order to ob tain the morphine and Demerol used for the other patients, Asel tine said. He would not specify the number of patients whose proce dures were up-coded without their knowledge.
Gregory Paw, director of the state Division of Criminal Justice said the indictment will go to the state Board of Medical Examiners to determine whether to suspend or revoke Feit's medical license.
The charges carry a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a $150,000 fine.