Prosecutors say Dr. MAD DOG Kishore put administrators of sober housing programs on his company’s payroll to hide the fact that he was bribing them to send drug testing work to his labs.
BOSTON
Prosecutors say a drug treatment specialist put administrators of sober-housing programs on his company’s payroll to hide the fact that he was bribing them to send drug-testing work to his labs.
In a court document released after Dr. Punyamurtula Kishore’s arraignment in Suffolk Superior Court on Thursday on Medicaid fraud charges, prosecutors allege that Kishore bribed owners and employees of eight sober-housing programs to send urine-screening work to him. He was then reimbursed $3.8 million by Medicaid for the lab work.
Kishore’s company, Preventive Medicine Associates, operated Weymouth Medical Practice on Washington Street, Quincy International Health Center on Hancock Street and more than two-dozen other clinics around the state. One of the sober-house programs that allegedly received kickbacks from Kishore has operated in Quincy and Randolph, and another had a program in Brockton, and one operated in Norton.
In some cases, Kishore allegedly put program administrators on the payroll of his company or his charity, the National Library of Addictions, even though they did little or no work for him, Assistant Attorney General Nancy Maroney wrote in the prosecution’s outline of the allegations.
In other cases, Kishore said the payments were to cover fees for renting space at the sober houses to collect urine samples or see patients, according to the document.
Kishore filed more than 53,000 claims for reimbursement for 864 patients at the eight sober houses between July 2006 and May 2011, according to the document.
A professional spokeswoman representing Kishore said the 61-year-old doctor denies the allegations.
“The charges against Dr. Kishore are completely without merit and inconsistent with his three decades of solid medical practice in support of individuals with addiction issues,” said Diana Pisciotta, who works for the Boston public relations firm Denterlein. “Dr. Kishore has in no way inappropriately benefited from his patient-care work.”
Kishore is charged with eight counts each of Medicaid kickbacks and making false Medicaid claims.
He was ordered held on $150,000 bail after his arraignment Thursday, but he planned to ask a judge to lower the amount today, said Brad Puffer, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office.
A Malden District Court judge ordered Kishore held on $150,000 bail after he was arrested last month on one charge of paying kickbacks. A Middlesex Superior Court judge allowed him released on personal recognizance a day later, provided he surrender his passport and wear a GPS tracking bracelet.
He was indicted on additional charges last week in Suffolk County.
Several of Kishore’s clinics closed in recent months. The remaining ones closed abruptly following his arrest giving little or no notice to patients or employees, some of whom said they hadn’t been paid for weeks.
The clinics specialized in treating opiate addiction using a drug called Vivitrol marketed as a non-addictive alternative to methadone or Suboxone.The sober-housing programs involved in the alleged scheme include New Horizons House, which has three locations in Quincy, one in Randolph and three in Dorchester. The manager of New Horizons House, Carl Smith, was indicted with Kishore and charged with one count of receiving kickbacks. It was not clear how many of the New Horizons locations were allegedly involved with the scheme.
Another sober-house program that allegedly received kickbacks, Gianna’s House, has operated facilities in Brockton and Wareham. The president of Gianna’s House Inc., John Coughlin of Carver, also was indicted with Kishore and charged with one count of receiving Medicare kickbacks.
Other sober-housing programs allegedly involved were Fresh Start Recovery Coalition in Malden; North Cottage in Norton; Marshall House in Malden; Sober Surroundings in East Boston, Somerville, Malden and Lowell; Canal View and Cedar Lake and Cedar Lake Lodge on Cape Cod; and Zero Tolerance, whose location or locations could not be determined.
Terrorist ,Third World Assassin and Public Enemy , MAD DOG a.k.a. Punyamurtula Kishore MD
ReplyDeleteTerrorist ,Third World Assassin and Public Enemy
Indian Doctor Steals $9 Million from U.S. Taxpayers: Gets 1 Year in Jail
Dr Punyamurtula Kishore – in healthcare, the criminals hide in plain sight
“This case exhibited blatant theft of state funds that were supposed to go toward care for some of our most vulnerable residents. This is fraud that undermines the integrity of our health care system.”
(State Attorney General Maura Healey)
In the town of Brookline Massachusetts yet another Indian physician has been found guilty of defrauding Medicaid of millions of taxpayer funds, according to State Attorney General Maura Healey this morning.
How well do you know YOUR doctor?
How well do you know YOUR doctor?
Doctor Punyamurtula Kishore, age 64, whose ongoing scam business Preventive Medicine Associates provided an excellent cover for a monstrous kickback scheme, changed his “not guilty” plea to “guilty” yesterday in Suffolk Superior Court. He admitted to 19 counts of false Medicaid Claims; 8 counts of Medicaid Kickbacks and 11 other counts of grand theft.
Attorney General Healey said, “this doctor orchestrated a complex kickback scheme to funnel a lucrative drug screening business to his laboratories and then billed taxpayers millions of dollars for those services.”
As a result, Superior Court Judge Janet Sanders sentenced Kishore to 360 days in the jail and a 10-year suspended sentence. Kishore, age 63, was ordered to surrender his medical license and repay $9,300,000 in restitution.
Lab coat lunatic Kishore had owned and operated Preventive Medicine Associates, which managed about 30 laboratories in Massachusetts, including physician office labs. The prosecution was able to prove that Kishore used bribery to induce operators of alcohol and drug housing to refer their residents’ urine screening business to his laboratories for testing. Residents were typically screened three times per week.
By law, $100-$200 urine drug tests may legally be billed to MassHealth by a doctor if they are medically necessary. Kishore illegally obtained tens of thousands of drug screens paid for by MassHealth residents who were never qualified patients.
State regulations require that the services must be medically necessary and the provider must be physically present and actively involved in the treatment.
Here’s another look:
Our Observations:
This particular Third World Assassin graduated from Andhra Medical College in India in 1974. He immigrated to the U.S. and learned from his colleagues that the American medical system is rife with opportunities for massive theft. Had he been even slightly less greedy, it is likely he never would have been caught.
After his time in jail, do you wonder if this brazen public enemy will be deported?