View this article online: https://www.claimsjournal.com/news/southeast/2005/03/03/52125.htm
Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist has filed a civil complaint against a suspended Tampa physician alleging that the doctor billed Medicaid for more than $200,000 for services never provided. Dr. Lehel Kadosa was charged with violations of Florida’s False Claims Act following an investigation by the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.
The suit alleges that Kadosa fraudulently billed Medicaid for injections designed to relieve lower back pain. The submitted bills included amounts charged for imaging that is supposed to verify that the needle is inserted in the correct position.
However, investigators determined that Kadosa did not use imaging and instead blindly inserted a needle into the patient’s lower back, potentially placing his patients at risk. Medicaid was then improperly billed for the use of imaging that never took place.
“Patients were not only provided substandard care, they were depending on an unlicensed physician,” said Crist. “Knowingly endangering patients at taxpayer expense is both legally and morally wrong and must be addressed with strong action.”
Kadosa is currently facing a $10,000 fine for each count plus triple the State of Florida’s damages. Last year, he was arrested by the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit for knowingly providing prescriptions for Vicoden, Alprazolam and Methadone to patients who did not have a medical need for the pharmaceuticals.
Kadosa then reportedly made false entries in medical records to make the prescriptions appear justified. The entries described unsupported diagnoses and treatment he never provided to the patients.
In that case, Kadosa was charged with prescription fraud and Medicaid fraud. Kadosa’s license to practice medicine in Florida has been suspended by the Florida Department of Health since November 2004.