United States of America v. Dr. Jitesh Patel and Advanced Urology, Inc.

Atlanta, Georgia commercial litigation lawyers represented Advanced Urology, Inc. and Dr. Jitesh Patel accused of violation the False Claims Act by billing Medicare and Medicaid for services that were either unnecessary or never performed.

The government’s investigation began after a former Advanced Urology employee filed a whistleblower complaint alleging that Advanced Urology performed unnecessary procedures. A former Advanced Urology physician filed a second whistleblower complaint alleging that the practice billed government healthcare programs for procedures and tests that were not performed or were medically unnecessary.

The whistleblowers alleged, among other things, that Advanced Urology’s organization was designed to maximize revenue for Dr. Patel and others by performing medically unnecessary procedures and tests, by engaging in the following practices, among others:

Implanting permanent Sacral Nerve Stimulator devices in patients without first determining whether the patients would benefit from the device.
Performing numerous unnecessary Cystoscopy and Retrograde Pyelogram procedures, which involved placing a patient under anesthesia and inserting a small scope through the patient’s urethra and into the bladder.
Performing an Electromyography test on almost every new patient at Advanced Urology even though it is rarely used in urology practices. This test involved transmitting electrical signals through an electrode attached to the patient’s genitalia.
Ordering thousands of unnecessary ultrasound tests, including duplex ultrasounds and retroperitoneal ultrasounds.

The whistleblowers also alleged that Advanced Urology billed for a procedure known as Direct Visual Internal Urethrotomy (“DVIU”) that it never performed. The DVIU procedure involves using a scope to dilate a patient’s urethra and a knife to cut tissue inside the urethra. Allegedly, Advanced Urology performed a less complicated dilation of the urethra but billed government healthcare programs for DVIU to obtain more payment than it was owed.

The whistleblowers alleged that Advanced Urology and Dr. Patel’s conduct resulted in the submission of false claims to federal healthcare programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, in violation of the False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. §§ 3729, et seq., and the Georgia False Medicaid Claims Act, O.C.G.A. §§ 49-4-168.1, et seq.

This civil settlement resolves two lawsuits filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia under the qui tam or whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act: United States and State of Georgia ex rel. Lorraine Perumal-Szramel v. Advanced Urology, Inc. et al., No. 1:18-cv-4482-SCJ, and United States and State of Georgia ex rel. Himanshu Aggarwal, M.D. v. Jitesh V. Patel et al., No. 1:19-cv-2844-WMR.

Under the False Claims Act, private citizens may bring suit for false claims on behalf of the United States and share in any recovery obtained by the government. The Relators will collectively receive $2,940,000 from the settlement.

The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability.

This case was investigated by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia; the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General; the Medicaid Fraud and Patient Protection Division of the Georgia Attorney General’s Office; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of the Inspector General; and the Defense Health Agency.

The investigation and resolution of this matter was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Adam D. Nugent and Andres Sandoval and Georgia Assistant Attorney General James Champlin.

Settled for $14 million.