A California imaging provider that owns Advanced Radiology of Beverly Hills has paid the U.S. government $647,000 to settle charges that it filed false claims with Medicare for unnecessary imaging tests, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California.
The company, Oaks Diagnostics, paid the settlement on June 30, without conceding any wrongdoing. As a result of the payment, the government asked a federal judge to dismiss a civil suit that alleged that Advanced Radiology performed unnecessary diagnostic tests and billed Medicare for them.
The attorney's office charged that Advanced Radiology and owner Dr. Ronald Grusd billed Medicare for unnecessary tests from 1999 to 2002. The fraud included a contractor, Nordelyn Lowder, who was hired by Advanced Radiology to recruit Medicare beneficiaries to undergo diagnostic tests such as CTs and MRIs, even though the beneficiaries allegedly did not need them.
The settlement resolves allegations brought against Advanced Radiology in 2003, filed by a former Advanced Radiology employee. The federal government took over prosecution of the case in 2008, and investigated it under the auspices of the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
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