An Indian-American lady doctor along with two others have been charged with bribery by a US court for allegedly participating in a healthcare kickback scheme.
Dr Padmini Nagaraj (60), Dr Mohammad Kaleem Arshad (62) – both psychiatrists – and Joseph A. Haynes (60), a marketer of a health care company, have been charged by the US Department of Justice with one count of conspiracy to receive illegal healthcare kickbacks and three counts of conspiracy to receive illegal healthcare. The doctors were also charged with one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and five counts of healthcare fraud. All three are residents of the US state of Louisiana.
Allegedly, the trio were affiliated with an outpatient psychiatric services company and conspired with the owner of a New Orleans home health agency to receive bribes for unnecessarily referring psychiatric patients for medically-unnecessary home health services. Haynes, who did the marketing for this company, allegedly helped to negotiate and enforce the bribes for the two doctors. The indictment also alleges that the New Orleans home health agency tried to fraudulently claim money from Medicare.
