Memphis Physicians Agree to Pay More Than $340,000 for Alleged Overbilling
“Doctor Shoaib Qureshi, Doctor Imran Mirza, Memphis Primary Care Specialists, Lunceford Family Health Center, and Getwell Family Medicine agreed to pay $341,690 to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by knowingly charging Medicare for services rendered by nurse practitioners at the higher reimbursement rate for physician services, the Justice Department announced today,” released the Department of Justice’s Office of Public Affairs.
“Medicare pays a higher rate for physician services than for non-physician services. Medicare will pay the higher physician rate for services rendered by non-physician providers if the services are ‘incident to’ the services of a physician. Such ‘incident to’ services, however, must be provided under the direct supervision of a physician. The United States alleged that, from 2015 to 2018, Doctor Qureshi, Doctor Mirza, and their clinics billed Medicare as though the physicians had provided the services in question, when in fact nurse practitioners had treated the patients without the supervision required by Medicare’s ‘incident to’ rules. Indeed, the government alleged that the services were rendered when the physicians were out of the office, including times when they were traveling out of state or abroad.”
