A doctor in Bethesda must pay the government $17 million in fines for submitting false Medicare and Medicaid claims and double billing for nuclear stress test studies.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia entered judgment on Tuesday against Dr. Ishtiaq Malik, a nuclear cardiologist who practices in D.C.
The federal government says Malik was able to double bill for nuclear stress tests by categorizing the stress and rest phases as two separate tests, when they should have been submitted as one test.
Malik also allegedly submitted false claims to Medicare, District of Columbia Medicaid, Maryland Medicaid, TRICARE and the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan. The government also said Malik engaged in a practice known as “unbundling”, which involves billing for services already included in the payment for the nuclear stress tests.
According to the False Claims Act, the government can collect three times the damages inflicted plus penalties, which in this case totals $17 million.
Malik and his companies have also been ordered to pay penalties of $5,500 for each false claim submitted to a government health care program, totaling an additional $1,672,000.
