A Florida billing company's owners set up an
Ohio pain management ASC and defrauded insurers out of millions of
dollars to fund a lavish lifestyle, say federal authorities.
Christopher Liva, his father Edward Liva, and
Carolyn Via, who own the Boca Raton, Fla.-based Physicians Surgical
Group and who operated the now-defunct Shaker Heights (Ohio) Surgical
Center, have been charged with conspiracy, wire fraud, healthcare fraud
and money laundering in the multi-million-dollar scheme.
The federal indictment also named PSG's chief
financial officer, Mark Fritz of Coral Springs, Fla.; chiropractors
John Fortuna of Avon, Ohio, and Antony Simone of Cleveland, who
practiced at the ASC; and anesthesiologist John Nickels, MD, of Highland
Heights, Ohio, in the charges.
"This group bilked insurance companies
through a series of false claims and diagnoses to get money, diamonds
and expensive homes," says U.S. Attorney Steven M. Dettelbach, in a statement.
According to authorities, between 2007 and
2010 the owners recruited chiropractors to perform manipulation under
anesthesia, the experimental pain management procedure, at the ASC,
offering them $4,000 kickbacks for each patient referred.
They then fabricated patient diagnoses,
inflated billing claims to private insurers, "represented that
procedures were performed by osteopathic and medical doctors when in
reality they were performed by osteopathic doctors and chiropractors,"
and did not collect patients' co-pays and deductibles, says the
statement.
In connection with the charges, prosecutors
are seeking to seize cash assets as well as 2 Boca Raton properties, a
wristwatch worth tens of thousands of dollars and a pair of 4.18-carat
diamond earrings purchased with the conspiracy's proceeds.
Calls seeking comment from the Physicians
Surgical Group owners and Drs. Fortuna, Simone and Nickels were not
immediately returned. In a published report, Drs. Fortuna and Nickels denied involvement in the billing scheme and Dr. Simone regretted his association with the group.
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office
for the Northern District of Ohio in Cleveland did not return a call
seeking additional information.
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