Local physician to pay $820,000 for submitting false claims

Abdul Naushad

Abdul Naushad, 46, of Town and Country in St. Louis County, his wife Wajha Naushad, and six pain management clinics will pay the federal government $820,000 to resolve allegations of filing false medical claims. Naushad's clinics, Advanced Pain Centers (APC), are located in Kennett, Cape Girardeau, Farmington, Festus. St. Louis, Eureka and Poplar Bluff.

The U.S. attorney's office for Eastern Missouri announced the settlement on Tuesday. The settlement also resolves claims against Naushad's billing company, Ultimate Practice Solutions (UPC), and its owner, Azeem Meo of Carmel, Ind.

Federal attorneys allege that the Naushads and Meo violated the False Claims Act by submitting false claims to Medicare and Missouri Medicare and TRICARE. The claims were for spinal decompression services performed with a DRX-3000 machine.

"The claims were false in that they indicated that direct one-on-one physical therapy was performed when, in fact, no one at APC performed physical therapy and APC did not even employ a physical therapist," said U.S. Attorney Richard Callahan. Callahan noted in a news release that the DRX-9000 is deemed experimental and therefore not covered or reimbursable by Medicare, Missouri Medicaid or TRICARE.

In addition, the U.S. attorney's office notes that "no one at APC performed physical therapy and APC did not even employ a physical therapist."

Staff at the Kennett clinic referred inquiries concerning Naushad and the settlement to the physician's St. Louis office. Telephone calls to the St. Louis office were not returned.

As a part of the settlement agreement, billings by the Naushads and the clinics will be under close scrutiny by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Ultimate Practice Solutions (UPC) will be excluded from participation in federal health care programs for five years.

An original complaint against the Naushads and Meo and their companies was filed by two whistle-blowers, Annetta Schwader and Amanda Richards. Under the False Claims Act, the whistle-blowers are entitled to a share of the civil settlement and will receive $131,200.