Indian American Psychiatrist in Houston Settles Claims for Unnecessary Brain Stimulation Treatments
- Dr. Ashok Jain and the companies he owned and operated have agreed to pay the United States $3 million to resolve claims they improperly billed Medicare.
An Indian American doctor in Houston pressured his patients into getting “unnecessary brain stimulation treatments,” and then billed Medicare for those services, a federal court ruled last week. Now, Dr. Ashok Jain, a psychiatrist, and the companies he owned and operated have agreed to pay the United States $3 million to resolve claims they improperly billed Medicare.
The Department of Justice said Jain, and his companies — Psychiatric Solutions P.C., Longview Psychiatric Center PLLC and Longview Psychiatric Center LP — “knowingly and willfully submitted, or caused the submission of, false claims to Medicare.”
The allegations included “intentionally pressuring patients to accept unnecessary medical treatments and billing for those treatments, falsifying treatment records and billing Medicare for worthless services and services they did not provide,” the DoJ said.
The investigation began when two individuals who worked at the Psychiatric Solutions Longview clinic filed a whistleblower, lawsuit on July 15, 2021. In the lawsuit, they said “they allegedly witnessed patients being pressured to accept unnecessary medical treatments as well as the falsification of treatment records and billing Medicare for worthless services or services the clinic did not provide,” the DoJ said.
Jain and the clinics had allegedly submitted claims for payment to Medicare for Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) procedures that were not performed, routinely administered TMS treatments unnecessarily and absent a valid medical purpose and improperly billed Medicare for reimbursement of those treatments.
They also billed Medicare for physician assessments when the physician did not see the patient or supervise the TMS session. The complaint indicated the fraudulent conduct continued until the business was sold in April 2022.