THE CRIMINAL LIFE OF MAD DOG A.K.A. PUNYAMURTULA KISHORE MD
Criminal , Terrorist ,Third World Assassin and Public Enemy
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
MAD DOG aka PUNYAMURTULA KISHORE MD 2020 I was in a AA meeting once and the speaker mentioned Dr Kishore, and the entire room erupted into laughter. I saw him back in the late 90s and he was a quack then. He was FAR from free. He had been fined years ago because when you sat in his waiting room (an hour was considered quick) he'd bill the insurance co's for that time. Then once you saw him he'd tell you what a great guy he was for working with addicts. Ive been clean for over 10 years now and those professionals who really helped me were ones that didnt need to continiously pat themselves on the back. Addicts are a nightmare to work with, and I commend all those that put up with it all to help those in need. But theres no way you're ever going to convince me Kishore was one of those people
Carl Smith L.M.H.C. aka Lil Dog, New Horizon House Carl Smith, the 65-year-old manager of New Horizon House LLC, has been charged with participating in a fraudulent drug-screening operation. Arraigned on Friday, he pleaded not guilty and is being held on $30,000 bail. He is due back in Suffolk Superior Court on Oct. 14. According to a court filing from the attorney general’s office, Smith has a “lengthy criminal record” dating back to 1975 when he was convicted of armed robbery. He was sentenced to three to five years in state prison. He was convicted of rape of young boys in1979 and 1989. He is a pedophile and registered level 1 sex offender. He was also convicted of kidnapping and armed robbery in 1979, larceny in 1989, forgery and embezzlement in 1991, forgery and larceny in 1994, and possession of a hypodermic needle or syringe in 1995, the filing noted.
Carl Smith’s indictment was one of 118 brought by Coakley through a statewide grand jury and others in Suffolk and Bristol counties. The alleged scheme involves three health care companies, ten individuals, and $10 million fraudulently obtained, largely from the state Medicaid program. State Rep. Marty Walsh, who attended the Port Norfolk meeting, said he was troubled by the allegations. “I question what kind of program he’s actually running there,” he said. “If he’s defrauding the government, is he defrauding the clients as well and not providing them with services?” Describing four unrelated cases, state prosecutors said Adlife Healthcare of Framingham allegedly billed the state for medical treatment to people who were deceased. Preventive Medicine Associates, and its owner, Dr. Punyamurtula Kishore, of Brookline, allegedly ran a “kickback scheme” with sober houses throughout the state. Smith is accused of getting paid $34,000 in return for arranging the ordering of urine drug screening tests for which MassHealth paid Kishore and PMA more than $786,000. According to the State House News Service, David Benson of New Bedford allegedly over-billed the state by making it seem as though his psychotherapy patients had more dire medical needs. Pond View Nursing Facility, in Jamaica Plain, was shut down in June 2008 for bad service, Coakley said, and its owner, Carolyn Wetterberg, was indicted for allegedly inflating the supposed medical needs of Pond View patients. “They may as well be walking over to MassHealth and taking money out of the Treasury,” Coakley said about the four companies and the “separate but very serious violations of public trust.” Asked about the extent of fraud in the massive program, Coakley said she was unable to provide a specific estimate but said, “obviously there’s a lot.” Adlife, an adult foster care program, is accused of the biggest fraud, amounting to $5.5 million in which the company claimed adults, who would visit during the day, were round-the-clock patients and billed the state for patients who are actually dead. Adlife had offices in West Springfield, Dorchester, and Hyannis, but Adlife and the other accused companies are “not in business,” according to Coakley. Preventive Medicine Associates was the next largest, accused of $3.8 million in unnecessary drug tests as part of a kickback scheme with sober houses in Dorchester, Malden, New Bedford and elsewhere that would contract with PMA to perform the unnecessary drug screens. After the state shutdown, Pond View and the patients were moved to other nursing homes. Many of them reportedly needed help eating and walking, but in the move out of Pond View many were able to perform both those activities without any assistance, according to Coakley, who said, “We do not believe there were miracles performed after those patients left that nursing home.” MassHealth, which runs the state’s Medicaid program, is budgeted at $10.3 billion, or about a third of the state’s budget. The 118 indictments, which Coakley described as difficult and expensive to achieve, accuse the four companies of defrauding about a tenth of one percent of the MassHealth budget. Material from State House News Service was used in this report.
New Horizon House, Carl Smith, Does Carl Smith care about the clients at New Horizon House?
Apparently he does not . Just look at what happen to James Clark . James Clark was a client at the same address where the Director/Manager Carl Smith resided at ,50 Draper Street in Dorchester MA.
Carl Smith is suppose to be a state licensed Mental Health Clinician , If so , than why did he discharge James Clark ? James clark never tested postive for a toxicology screen for illegal or prescription drugs, than why was he discharged ? He was discharged for behavioral and attitude problems that were related to his psychiatric and substance abuse diagnosis.
Carl Smith L.M.H.C. should have been able to detect that this man had psychological problems and referred him for treatment to MAD DOG aka Punyamurtula Kishore's Neurological Clinic for treatment and to help James Clark get back on his psychiatric medication. Instead , Carl Smith discharged him and the following day , James Clark murdered his grandmother Eleanor Clark in Weston Massachusetts .
Punyamurtula Kishore MD aka MAD DOG Millionaire referred James Clark to Carl Smith's Program New Horizon House after James Clark was Discharged from St. Elizabeths Hospital's S.E.C.A.P.'s Detoxification unit. Punyamurtula Kishore aka MAD DOG had a Contract with Carl Smith to provide New Horizon clients with Medical and Mental health Treatment. No treatment was provided except for toxicology screens .
Carl Smith collected James Clark's program fee and MAD DOG Kishore billed his insurance company . Carl Smith and Dr. Kishore donot care about thier clients or patients . The only thing they cared about was making money and more of it . What a shame ?
30 years of CORRUPTION , LIES, CHEATING AND STEALING is Punyamurtula Kishore MD aka Mad Dog Millionaire’s trademark . He was involved in Corruption when he was the Assistant Medical Director of the Massachusetts Dept. of Correction , Martha Eliot Health Ctr , Roxbury Comprehensive Health Ctr. and his own Medical Practice , Preventive Medicine Associates.formerly Addiction Medicine Associates. He used two entities he created on paper that never existed called the National library of Addictions and the American College of Addiction to advocate his emergence in the field of addiction medicine. This unscrupulous MD used and exploited his patients and employees for financial wealth. The only thing that MAD DOG MILLIONAIRE aka Punyamurtula Kishore cared about was making money at the expense of Human misery
Brookline Doctor MAD DOG Pleads Guilty, Sentenced to Jail and Ordered to Pay $9.3 Million for Running Medicaid Kickback and False Billing Scheme
Dr. MAD DOG Kishore to Surrender Medical License, Sentenced to House of Correction
BOSTON – MAD DOG pleaded guilty and was sentenced to jail, and has been ordered to pay $9.3 million in restitution for running an intricate Medicaid fraud scheme involving millions of dollars in taxpayer funds, Attorney General Maura Healey announced today.
Dr. Punyamurtula Kishore, 64, along with his company Preventive Medicine Associates, Inc. (PMA), pleaded guilty on Monday in Suffolk Superior Court. PMA pleaded guilty to charges of Medicaid Kickbacks (8 counts), Medicaid False Claims (19 counts) and Larceny over $250 (11 counts). Dr. Kishore pleaded guilty to one count of Larceny over $250.
“Dr. Kishore 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,” AG Healey said. “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.”
Today, Superior Court Judge Janet Sanders sentenced Kishore to 360 days in the House of Correction, with 11 months to serve and the balance suspended for 10 years. As a condition to his sentence, Kishore has also agreed to surrender his medical license. Judge Sanders also ordered Kishore and PMA to pay, jointly and severally, a total of $9.3 million in restitution.
Dr. Kishore previously owned and managed PMA, a network of 29 medical branches throughout Massachusetts, including physician office laboratories and one independent clinical laboratory. Based on the AG’s investigation, Dr. Kishore used bribes, or kickbacks, to induce sober house owners to send their residents’ urine drug screening business to his laboratories for testing. Residents were typically screened three times per week.
A urine drug screen may be billed to MassHealth by a physician if the screen is medically necessary. Drug screens generally are billed to the MassHealth program for approximately $100 to $200. Dr. Kishore manipulated his business relationships with sober house owners to illegally obtain tens of thousands of drug screens paid for by MassHealth for sober house residents who were never treated by PMA providers.
In September 2011, Dr. Kishore and PMA were indicted, and individually charged with Medicaid Kickbacks (8 counts), and Medicaid False Claims (8 counts). In November 2013, Dr. Kishore and PMA were indicted on additional charges of Medicaid False Claims (11 counts) and Larceny over $250 (11 counts) for billing MassHealth for millions of dollars in drug screens using the names of PMA physicians and nurse practitioners who were not actually treating the patients or determining the drug screens to be medically necessary. State regulations require that the services must be medically necessary and the provider must be physically present and actively involved in the treatment of the member.
Two other individuals previously pleaded guilty to one count of Medicaid Kickbacks in connection with their involvement in Dr. Kishore’s scheme to defraud MassHealth. In June 2012, Damion Smith, 42, of New Jersey, president of Fresh Start Recovery Coalition, was sentenced to two years in the House of Correction suspended for two years with probation. Carl Smith, 69, of Dorchester, manager of New Horizon House, pleaded guilty in January 2015 and was sentenced to two years in the House of Correction suspended for two years with probation.
The case against Thomas Leonard of Malden, the part owner and manager of the Marshall House, a sober house located in Malden, is ongoing. John Coughlin of Carver, president of Gianna’s House Inc., which operates several sober houses located in Wareham, New Bedford, and Sandwich, began his trial today in Suffolk Superior Court.
This case, first referred to the AG's Office by MassHealth, was prosecuted by Assistant Attorneys General Angela Neal, David Scheffler, and Lee Hettinger of AG Healey’s Medicaid Fraud Division with the assistance of victim witness advocates John Malone and Amber Anderson. The case was investigated by Erica Schlain and Denise Long of the Attorney General’s Office, Massachusetts State Police assigned to the Attorney General’s Office, Examiners from AG Healey’s Computer Forensics Lab, Special Agents from the Boston Office of the United States Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General, and investigators from the Massachusetts Insurance Fraud Bureau also assisted in this case.
Port Norfolk ‘sober home’ operator held in Medicaid scheme
By
Gintautas Dumcius and Pat Tarantino, Reporter Staff Oct. 6, 2011
Carl Smith
The operator of a controversial sober house in Dorchester’s Port Norfolk section was arrested last Thursday as state attorney general Martha Coakley pressed her probe into an alleged kickback scheme involving the state’s Medicaid program.
Carl Smith, the 65-year-old manager of New Horizon House LLC, has been charged with participating in a fraudulent drug-screening operation. Arraigned on Friday, he pleaded not guilty and is being held on $30,000 bail. He is due back in Suffolk Superior Court on Oct. 14.
Smith has come under fire recently from local elected officials and residents of the Port Norfolk neighborhood for operating a sober home – a residential drug and alcohol recovery program – out of a house on Lorenzo Street without first consulting the community’s civic association. Boston Inspectional Service workers have since investigated the property following concerns about overcrowding.
According to a court filing from the attorney general’s office, Smith has a “lengthy criminal record” dating back to 1975 when he was convicted of armed robbery. He was sentenced to three to five years in state prison.
He was also convicted of kidnapping and armed robbery in 1979, larceny in 1989, forgery and embezzlement in 1991, forgery and larceny in 1994, and possession of a hypodermic needle or syringe in 1995, the filing noted.
In late September, members of Port Norfolk’s civic association said they were opposed to the sober home operating at 12 Lorenzo St., saying they had not been consulted before it opened and expressing concern over the potential backgrounds and activities of several sober home residents.
The program on Lorenzo Street is part of the New Horizon House network, a group of at least eight sober homes operated by Smith, including locations on Savin Hill Avenue, Rill Street, and Draper Street.
Aimed at people recovering from substance abuse who have completed a more intensive therapeutic program and want to live among others in recovery, sober homes have no legal status or regulations in Massachusetts. The Department of Public Health is expected to complete a report, which will likely be used as a guideline for future laws, by the end of the year.
“It’s sad, there’s some good rehabs out there, this just wasn’t one of them,” said Ryan Whitcomb, a Port Norfolk resident.
The neighborhood association has also focused on property owners George and Shirley Bragel, who own four Lorenzo Street properties as well as others which are being used as sober homes. Association members were concerned that that meant more sober homes in the neighborhood, but the Bragels said at last month’s meeting that they do not intend to rent the other buildings to another recovery program.
Smith’s indictment was one of 118 brought by Coakley through a statewide grand jury and others in Suffolk and Bristol counties. The alleged scheme involves three health care companies, ten individuals, and $10 million fraudulently obtained, largely from the state Medicaid program.
State Rep. Marty Walsh, who attended the Port Norfolk meeting, said he was troubled by the allegations. “I question what kind of program he’s actually running there,” he said. “If he’s defrauding the government, is he defrauding the clients as well and not providing them with services?”
Describing four unrelated cases, state prosecutors said Adlife Healthcare of Framingham allegedly billed the state for medical treatment to people who were deceased. Preventive Medicine Associates, and its owner, Dr. Punyamurtula Kishore, of Brookline, allegedly ran a “kickback scheme” with sober houses throughout the state.
Smith is accused of getting paid $34,000 in return for arranging the ordering of urine drug screening tests for which MassHealth paid Kishore and PMA more than $786,000.
According to the State House News Service, David Benson of New Bedford allegedly over-billed the state by making it seem as though his psychotherapy patients had more dire medical needs. Pond View Nursing Facility, in Jamaica Plain, was shut down in June 2008 for bad service, Coakley said, and its owner, Carolyn Wetterberg, was indicted for allegedly inflating the supposed medical needs of Pond View patients.
“They may as well be walking over to MassHealth and taking money out of the Treasury,” Coakley said about the four companies and the “separate but very serious violations of public trust.”
Asked about the extent of fraud in the massive program, Coakley said she was unable to provide a specific estimate but said, “obviously there’s a lot.”
Adlife, an adult foster care program, is accused of the biggest fraud, amounting to $5.5 million in which the company claimed adults, who would visit during the day, were round-the-clock patients and billed the state for patients who are actually dead. Adlife had offices in West Springfield, Dorchester, and Hyannis, but Adlife and the other accused companies are “not in business,” according to Coakley.
Preventive Medicine Associates was the next largest, accused of $3.8 million in unnecessary drug tests as part of a kickback scheme with sober houses in Dorchester, Malden, New Bedford and elsewhere that would contract with PMA to perform the unnecessary drug screens.
After the state shutdown, Pond View and the patients were moved to other nursing homes. Many of them reportedly needed help eating and walking, but in the move out of Pond View many were able to perform both those activities without any assistance, according to Coakley, who said, “We do not believe there were miracles performed after those patients left that nursing home.”
MassHealth, which runs the state’s Medicaid program, is budgeted at $10.3 billion, or about a third of the state’s budget. The 118 indictments, which Coakley described as difficult and expensive to achieve, accuse the four companies of defrauding about a tenth of one percent of the MassHealth budget. Material from State House News Service was used in this report.
Seeking help but finding a scam in sober homes
Scandal afflicts some ‘sober homes,’ where recovering addicts must agree to drug testing by labs closely tied to landlords
Fred Field for The Boston Globe
Donald Ahlgren, 28, thought he would find a safe haven in a sober home, but eventually asked to be returned to prison, where he has found more support.
Two years ago, Donald Ahlgren faced a dilemma common among the legions of drug addicts just out of detoxification programs: He needed an affordable place to live that wouldn’t reject him because of his past.
To his surprise, he had his pick of places.
These low-budget rooms were typically in apartment buildings or houses, and tucked in some of the most recession-plagued neighborhoods of Boston and nearby suburbs. Landlords advertised them as “sober homes,’’ an informal term used for rentals marketed to recovering substance abusers. Residents are warned about mandatory urine testing — typically three times a week — and zero-tolerance rules, but also promised a supportive you-can-do-it environment.
Bill Greene/Globe Staff
Ron Carlino Jr. at a sober house run by Twelve Step Education Program of New England, which Donald Ahlgren’s mother said was one of the few good programs. “For a time, I was wanted,’’ recalled Ahlgren, 28, a North Reading native who had spent years in and out of drug rehabilitation programs and the courts.
Yet he quickly realized that many of these places did not seem to care much about preventing relapses. For all the attention to urine testing, Ahlgren said, he and other tenants sometimes got high on the side and then found, to their surprise and relief, that landlords did not evict them after “dirty’’ results.
Ahlgren soon discovered the dark side of this little-known niche of the drug world: Recovering addicts were cash cows for a financial alliance between sober homes and private drug-testing labs. Landlords needed the labs to show they were serious about sobriety, largely to get referrals to fill their rooms. And the labs needed access to lots of indigent substance abusers whose drug-screening tests qualified for lucrative Medicaid reimbursements worth millions of dollars a year.
These business relationships troubled Ahlgren and also drew the scrutiny of prosecutors, who now allege that a number of labs and sober homes engaged in fraud and abuse of Medicaid, the government’s health insurance program for the poor. On Friday, one major lab agreed to pay $20 million to settle state charges that it improperly billed for testing in sober homes.
‘It’s a big game. It’s all about the money.’
Donald Ahlgren, recovering addict
Prosecutors have said that, as labs aggressively competed to sign up addicts for testing some resorted to bribing sober home operators for exclusive access to their tenants. Several lab executives — including a Brookline doctor who treated Ahlgren — have also been indicted in schemes that, among other things, required addicts to undergo excessive urine testing — much more frequent than is typically recommended by substance abuse specialists.
The crackdown came too late for many struggling addicts like Ahlgren, who succumbed again to the grip of narcotics. He would eventually get clean, though only after going to extremes: He almost begged to be put behind bars again to escape from a world where all that anyone seemed to care about was his Medicaid card.
“It’s a big game,’’ he said. “It’s all about the money.’’ An effective program
After being released from a detoxification program in the summer of 2010, Ahlgren told his mother he was ready to change. He wanted to stop his OxyContin and heroin cravings, which had begun when he was in high school and had driven him to burglarize houses to pay for the drugs.
Though skeptical at first, Anne Marie Hallahan, a day-care teacher, knew her son had worked hard to get sober and she began seeing a sparkle in his eyes that reminded her of his happier days as an award-winning black-belt karate competitor.
He expressed an interest in sober homes, realizing that it wasn’t best for him to live any more with family and friends. When Ahlgren’s mother agreed to subsidize the rent — about $150 a week for a shared room — Ahlgren told her that she would not regret it. He promised he would eventually find work and become independent.
“I want you to be proud of me,’’ he said.
A drug treatment counselor recommended a sober home called New Horizon House. The house, in a residential section of Quincy, was part of a scattered complex of a half-dozen properties in Boston and Quincy, which Carl Smith, the 66-year-old landlord, had converted into sober homes for some 90 recovering substance abusers.
Sober homes are similar to halfway houses, providing shared bedroom space and communal living areas — and occasionally meals — for a weekly fee. Their numbers grew over the past decade as landlords found this specialized corner of the rental market profitable. But the homes are unregulated, and, other than ensuring that their properties meet building safety codes, landlords do not have to provide any special services or enforce any rules.
Still, most require urine testing, which is typically paid for by insurance. For instance, Medicaid pays about $100 to $200 for each urine screen, as long as a doctor signs a form saying the test is medically necessary.
“We certainly don’t want people who are using drugs in the house,’’ Smith, a former convict with a degree in mental health counseling, said in a court deposition. “We want people who are there to be in a recovery program.’’
Ahlgren learned that New Horizon’s testing rules were ironclad: All tenants had to use Dr. Punyamurtula Kishore of Brookline as their primary care doctor, or one of his associates, and submit three urine samples each week, at scheduled times, to Kishore’s lab and clinic operation, Preventive Medicine Associates.
File/The Boston Globe
Dr. Punyamurtula Kishore during his arraignment on charges that he operated a kickback scheme and fraudulently billed the state for nearly $3.8 million.This regimen differed from what many top addiction specialists, including John F. Kelly of the Center for Addiction Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, recommend for most recovering addicts in such settings, which is random testing — not scheduled — once every week or two.
Kishore’s business had enjoyed stunning growth — he had about 30 offices throughout the state, employing about 370 people, including some 30 physicians. By 2010, Preventive Medicine enjoyed $4.9 million in annual Medicaid payments for urine screening.
Kishore’s business began to thrive soon after Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office launched criminal investigations of his competition. Willow Labs of Lynn had agreed in 2007 to a $8 million settlement for submitting Medicaid claims without proper medical approval. And in 2010, state prosecutors indicted Calloway Labs of Woburn and two executives for allegedly delivering bribes to sober home operators through sham companies and using fake doctors’ signatures on Medicaid claims. Calloway settled for $20 million this past week, while the executives, who have pleaded not guilty, await trial later this year.
With much of his competition tainted, Kishore, 61, made sales pitches to sober homes emphasizing that he was a medical doctor and employed other doctors, who could properly authorize drug tests.
Kishore prepared promotional materials comparing commercial labs — “Performs testing, then asks for referral after the fact (illegal)’’ — to his own lab — “Does a complete physical and obtains a complete patient history, then orders and performs testing (legal).’’
The physician began attracting more business, including from some sober-home managers who saw him as a dedicated doctor, one of the few willing to focus on substance abusers.
Ahlgren would have one face-to-face meeting with Kishore.
As a condition of staying at New Horizon, he had to attend relapse-prevention group sessions in Kishore’s Quincy clinic. During one, Ahlgren listened to a large, avuncular-looking doctor who spoke about the daily struggles against temptation. Kishore talked about resisting the thrill-seeking life, which increasingly tempted Ahlgren as he saw so many people around him using drugs and drinking. He had begun to smoke marijuana from time to time. Dueling facilities
After a month or so at New Horizon, Ahlgren decided to try a new place. Tenants moved easily among sober homes because their rent was paid weekly and the landlords were always interested in attracting new tenants.
Ahlgren went to live in a cluster of a half-dozen town houses in the Fort Hill section of Roxbury, where he met a tall, charismatic former drug addict named David Perry. Perry sees himself on a public service mission to provide housing to an overlooked population, though his reputation in Roxbury suffered when he — along with a partner, David Fromm — ran a large sober-house operation, called Safe Haven, that shut down amid neighborhood outcry in 2007 over unruly and overcrowded conditions, as well as tenants’ drug and alcohol abuse.
Perry later started his own sober-home business, Recovery Educational Services, and when Ahlgren moved in, he found a familiar urine-screening routine: He had to submit three specimens a week, at scheduled times. They were sent to Precision Testing Laboratories — Fromm’s new venture.
Soon, Ahlgren got pulled into a bitter feud between Precision and Kishore’s labs, which had stolen away a number of sober-home clients from Fromm’s business, including New Horizon. Precision suspected something shady, perhaps kickbacks, and the company asked Ahlgren in the fall of 2010 to submit an affidavit for a lawsuit they were preparing.
Ahlgren ended up becoming a bit player in the effort to take down Kishore, testifying in his sworn statement that, at New Horizon, he and other tenants were required to use Kishore’s clinics for medical referrals and urine tests.
Ahlgren felt he had to submit the affidavit. He had become friendly with Perry, joining him occasionally to speak before recovering addicts’ groups. By now Ahlgren was struggling badly, taking OxyContin, heroin, and anything else he could get his hands on. He said he appreciated how Perry gave him a break, more than once, when Ahlgren’s urine screens turned out badly and he vowed to change.
“I’m very compassionate,’’ said Perry recalling Ahlgren’s occasional lapses. “Donny tried.’’
Last March, Precision filed a multimillion-dollar civil lawsuit against Kishore and his business, and among Kishore’s subpoenaed bank records, Precision’s lawyers later found what they were looking for - about a dozen $1,000 checks to Smith’s New Horizon House, with the memo field saying “facility fee.’’
Prosecutors would find even more. In Kishore’s records, they turned up checks to numerous sober home operators; prosecutors viewed them as bribes, though the payments were veiled as salaries for no-show jobs or fees for alleged rental of beds or space in sober homes. Some checks were drawn from an account in the name of a nonprofit institution that Kishore had created as an educational resource for drug treatment specialists, the National Library of Addictions.
Kishore was indicted last fall, charged with fraudulently billing Medicaid nearly $4 million for tens of thousands of urine screens that allegedly induced through bribery. The indictment against Kishore and his business also named eight sober home operations that allegedly accepted Kishore’s bribes in return for exclusive access to their tenants.
Carl Smith of New Horizon was among the defendants, charged with accepting some $34,000 from Kishore’s operation, including weekly payments for doing “little or no work.’’
In all, the case involved more than 860 Medicaid recipients and more than 53,000 claims. Kishore and Preventive Medicine Associates pleaded not guilty and defended the payments to sober homes as legitimate business expenses. Smith also pleaded not guilty.
The alleged corruption involving sober homes and labs has led state health authorities to look into regulating these homes, and while no specifics have been released, they are expected to issue a report later this year. Meanwhile, Medicaid is now forcing labs to give detailed medical justification for urine tests involving sober house tenants, prompting Precision Labs to complain that this population is being singled out.
Substance abuse counselors, however, say they welcome the state’s scrutiny. Some sober homes provide a supportive transitional environment for recovering addicts, they say, but others simply pursue profits, and their loose environment often tempt addicts to resume their habits.
“They’re really just boarding houses, and as long as you pay rent, they don’t care,’’ said Nicholas Tenaglia, program director of the Men’s Addiction Treatment Center in Brockton.
One morning in December, as a Globe reporter made an unannounced visit to Kishore’s Brookline offices, the physician appeared in the hallway. He was dressed in a suit coat and formal slacks, which concealed the GPS ankle bracelet he was required to wear as a condition of bail.
Kishore spoke amiably about his “public health mission’’ to help desperate substance abusers, a population many doctors avoid because recovery is so often difficult, prolonged, and full of setbacks. He said he regrets that his patients had been forced to scatter in search of new clinics when he shut down his operation after Medicaid stopped paying him.
Kishore looked wistfully down the hallway, with doors leading to now-empty offices. “We were a pretty big enterprise at one time,’’ he said, then politely cut short the conversation. He has declined requests for further interviews.
Meanwhile, Ahlgren’s mother watched helplessly as her son’s life spiraled out of control. She spoke highly of one of the last sober homes where her son stayed, Twelve Step Education Program of New England, in Woburn. But other than that, she felt the money she spent for this kind of housing was wasted.
“These sober homes turned out to be just dumping grounds,’’ she said.
She was convinced that her son needed long-term hospitalization. She said Medicaid declined to cover an extended stay, and he did not know where to turn. Ahlgren, gaunt and pale, worried that he would steal again to feed his habit. Late last summer, he called a probation officer assigned to him from an out-of-state burglary conviction: Take me in, please, he pleaded, before I do something.
Now in a state prison in Warren, Maine, Ahlgren said he got sober by going cold turkey in the structured environment behind bars. He said asking to be incarcerated was one of his best decisions.
“It’s sad, but I feel safer here than I did on the streets
Punyamurtula Kishore MD aka MAD DOG MILLIONAIRE is a liar and a fraud. There has never been a National Library of Addictions or a Amerixcan College of Addiction Medicine in Massachusetts or anywhere in the United States, except on paper. The mysterious National Library of Addictions Of all the libraries in all the world, which is the most addictive — and the most mysterious? Perhaps it’s The National Library of Addic... view moretions. This addictive entity is located in Brookline, Massachusetts. Founded by Punyamurtula S. Kishore, M.D., M.P.H., it is said to be “an intellectual gathering place for health care professionals and community members.” The institution is little known to the library-loving public, and information about it is scarce. Many questions present themselves. What addictions are kept in the library’s collection, and which of them are available for use by the public? Which of these addictions can be taken out on loan? Is there a children ’s room, or is the library open only to adults? Bibliophiles note with pleasure that the library appears to own at least one book. Punyamurtula Kishore MD aka MAD DOG Millionaire, How did MAD DOG Millionaire become a Millionaire? CORRUPTION , LYING , CHEATING , and STEALING from Mass Health , Medicare , Medicaid and private insurance companies . Exploiting his emoloyees and patients. Billing insurance companies without examining or seeing the patients. 30 years of CORRUPTION , LIES, CHEATING AND STEALING is Punyamurtula Kishore MD aka Mad Dog Millionaire’s trademark . He was involved in Corruption when he was the Medical Director at the Massachusetts Dept. of Correction , Martha Eliot Health Ctr , Roxbury Comprehensive Health Ctr. and his own Medical Practice , Preventive Medicine Associates.formerly Addiction Medicine Associates. He used two entities he created on paper that never existed called the National library of Addictions and the American College of Addiction to advocate his emergence in the field of addiction medicine. This unscrupulous MD used and exploited his patients and employees for financial wealth. The only thing that MAD DOG MILLIONAIRE aka Punyamurtula Kishore cared about was making money at the expense of Human misery
MAD DOG MILLIONAIRE aka Punyamurtula Kishore MD Yes, this CRIMINAL/CROOK IS definitely going to prison. CORRUPTION , LYING , CHEATING , and STEALING from Mass Health , Medicare , Medicaid and private insurance companies . Exploiting his emoloyees and patients. Billing insurance companies without examining or seeing the patients. 30 years of CORRUPTION , LIES, CHEATING AND STEALING is Punyamurtula Kishore MD aka Mad Dog Millionaire's trademark . He was involved in Corruption when he was the assistant Medical Director at the Massachusetts Dept. of Correction , Martha Eliot Health Ctr , Roxbury Comprehensive Health Ctr. and his own Medical Practice , Preventive Medicine Associates.formerly Addiction Medicine Associates. He used two entities he created on paper that never existed called the National library of Addictions and the American College of Addiction to advocate his emergence in the field of addiction medicine. This unscrupulous MD used and exploited his patients and employees for financial wealth. The only thing that MAD DOG MILLIONAIRE aka Punyamurtula Kishore cared about was making money at the expense of someone elses misery
Within an industry created specifically to help those suffering from opiate addiction, the owner of multiple Massachusetts-based drug treatment clinics has been charged with six counts of Medicaid fraud and an illegal kickback scheme involving eight sober houses. Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley announced that Dr. Punyamurtula Kishore allegedly defrauded the state’s public health insurance program, MassHealth, of over $3.8 million.
Dr. Punyamurtula Kishore image from boston.cbslocal.com
Dr. Punyamurtula Kishore, the founder of Preventive Medicine Associates, owned and operated 29 treatment facilities throughout the state of Massachusetts. Each clinic specialized in opiate addiction treatment using a medication called Vivitrol. Traditionally treated with methadone or Suboxone therapy, Dr. Kishore claimed that Vivitrol was a non-addictive alternative for patients suffering from opiate addiction.
He was arrested at his home and charged with eight counts of Medicaid fraud and 12 counts of larceny. Dr. Kishore was also charged with eight counts of illegal kickbacks to housing programs, known as sober homes, for recovering addicts.
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According to Coakley, Dr. Kishore bribed the owners and employees of eight sober houses to send urine samples to his offices for screening. Each of the drug screens were later reimbursed by Medicaid, netting Dr. Kishore $3.8 million in fraudulent payments.
“That scheme … involved billing MassHealth for drug and urine screens, often at the amount of $100 to $200 each, for screens that were either unnecessary or never completed,” said Coakley.
Dr. Kishore was also accused of placing sober house administrators on Preventive Medicine Associates’ payroll in an attempt to conceal the fact he was paying them illegal kickbacks in exchange for drug screening work to his labs. In some instances, the good doctor even tried to cover up the illegal kickbacks by placing sober home employees on the payroll of his charity, the National Library of Addictions.
According to Assistant Attorney General Nancy Maroney, the sober home administrators and employees were fraudulently placed on Dr. Kishore’s payrolls and, in reality, did little to no work for Preventive Medicine Associates or the National Library of Addictions.
In addition to the payroll scheme, Dr. Kishore allegedly attempted to cover up the illegal kickbacks by disguising the payments as fees for rental space within the sober homes. He created bogus leases with the sober homes, claiming that Preventive Medicine Associates was renting small areas within each home to collect urine samples and evaluate patients.
According to official documents, between July 2006 and May 2011, Dr. Kishore filed over 53,000 Medicare reimbursement claims for 864 patients within the eight sober homes.
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A vast majority of Preventive Medicine Associates clinics closed after the lawsuit was filed against Dr. Kishore. Those clinics which had remained open immediately closed after Dr. Kishore’s arrest, providing no warning to patients or employees. In fact, many employees claimed they had not been paid by Dr. Kishore in several weeks.
Additional indictments were handed down for Dr. Kishore’s co-conspirators in connection with the illegal kickback scheme. These included:
John Coughlin, president of Gianna’s House, Inc.: Gianna’s House operates multiple sober homes located in Wareham, New Bedford and Sandwich, Massachusetts. Coughlin is charged with one count of receiving illegal Medicaid kickbacks.
Carl Smith, president of New Horizons House, Inc.: New Horizons House has three sober homes located in Quincy, one in Randolph and three in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Although it is not clear how many of the New Horizon facilities were directly involved with the illegal kickback scheme, Smith is charged with one count of receiving illegal Medicaid kickbacks.
Dr. Kishore was held on a $150,000 bond following his arrest. He was released on his own personal recognizance one day later after surrendering his passport and agreeing to wear a GPS tracking device.
If you have discovered evidence of government fraud, contact an experienced False Claims Act attorney before blowing the whistle. You may be entitled to a substantial reward and the legal protections afforded to whistleblowers under state and federal laws. The attorneys of Berger & Montague are nationally recognized experts in Whistleblower/Qui Tam actions with over a decade of experience pursuing these complex fraud cases. For more information or to schedule your confidential consultation, contact us online or call us at 1-800-424-6690.
Sunday, October 25, 2015
Punyamurtula Kishore MD aka MAD DOG MILLIONAIRE is a liar and a fraud. There has never been a National Library of Addictions or a Amerixcan College of Addiction Medicine in Massachusetts or anywhere in the United States, except on paper.
The mysterious National Library of Addictions Of all the libraries in all the world, which is the most addictive — and the most mysterious? Perhaps it’s The National Library of Addictions. This addictive entity is located in Brookline, Massachusetts. Founded by Punyamurtula S. Kishore, M.D., M.P.H., it is said to be “an intellectual gathering place for health care professionals and community members.” The institution is little known to the library-loving public, and information about it is scarce. Many questions present themselves. What addictions are kept in the library’s collection, and which of them are available for use by the public? Which of these addictions can be taken out on loan? Is there a children ’s room, or is the library open only to adults? Bibliophiles note with pleasure that the library appears to own at least one book.
30 years of CORRUPTION , LIES, CHEATING AND STEALING is Punyamurtula Kishore MD aka Mad Dog Millionaire’s trademark . He was involved in Corruption when he was the Assistant Medical Director of the Massachusetts Dept. of Correction , Martha Eliot Health Ctr , Roxbury Comprehensive Health Ctr. and his own Medical Practice , Preventive Medicine Associates.formerly Addiction Medicine Associates. He used two entities he created on paper that never existed called the National library of Addictions and the American College of Addiction to advocate his emergence in the field of addiction medicine. This unscrupulous MD used and exploited his patients and employees for financial wealth. The only thing that MAD DOG MILLIONAIRE aka Punyamurtula Kishore cared about was making money at the expense of Human misery
MAD DOG a.k.a Punymurtula Kidhore MD and Lil Dog a.k.a. Carl Smith L.M.H.C. are responsible for the death of Eleanor Clark of Weston , Massachusetts.
Just look at what happen to James Clark .
James Clark was a client at the same address where the Director/Manager Carl Smith resided at ,50 Draper Street in Dorchester MA. Carl Smith is suppose to be a state licensed Mental Health Clinician , If so , than why did he discharge James Clark ? James clark never tested postive for a toxicology screen for illegal or prescription drugs, than why was he discharged ?
He was discharged for behavioral and attitude problems that were related to his psychiatric and substance abuse diagnosis. Carl Smith L.M.H.C. should have been able to detect that this man had psychological problems and referred him for treatment to MAD DOG aka Punyamurtula K...ishore's Neurological Clinic for treatment and to help James Clark get back on his psychiatric medication. Instead , Carl Smith discharged him and the following day , James Clark murdered his 81 year old grandmother Eleanor Clark in Weston Massachusetts .
Punyamurtula Kishore MD aka MAD DOG Millionaire referred James Clark to Carl Smith's Program New Horizon House after James Clark was Discharged from St. Elizabeths Hospital's S.E.C.A.P.'s Detoxification unit
BOSTON – A Brookline doctor has been ordered to pay $9.3 million in restitution to MassHealth after he pleaded guilty Tuesday to ripping off the taxpayer funded health insurance program in a kickback scheme operated out of his chain of addiction treatment clinics, which included locations in Quincy and Weymouth.
Suffolk Superior Court Judge Janet Sanders also sentenced Punyamurtula Kishore, 64, to 360 days in jail with 11 months to serve with the balance suspended for 10 years, according to Attorney General Maura Healey’s office. As a condition of the sentence, Kishore must also surrender his medical license, which had been suspended a year ago.
Kishore pleaded guilty to one count of larceny over $250. His former company, Preventive Medicine Associates, pleaded guilty to charges including making false Medicaid claims, Medicaid kickbacks and larceny over $250. MassHealth is Massachusetts’ Medicaid program, which provides health insurance to the poor.
Kishore’s chain of more than two-dozen clinics, including Weymouth Medical Practice on Washington Street and Quincy International Health Center on Hancock Street, closed abruptly around the time of his arrest on fraud in 2011.
Prosecutors said Kishore bribed owners and employees of eight sober-housing programs to send urine-screening work that was medically unnecessary to his labs. Over time he was reimbursed more than $9 million by MassHealth for tens of thousands of drug screens.
“This case exhibited blatant theft of state funds that were supposed to go toward care for some of our most vulnerable residents,” Healey said in a statement. “This is fraud that undermines the integrity of our health care system.”
Drug screens generally cost MassHealth between $100 and $200, according to Healey’s office.
Kishore’s attorney, Mark Berthiaume, could not be reached for comment.
Kishore had been scheduled to go to trial on Monday after receiving nine postponements. The trial was cancelled ahead of his plea change.
Kishore’s clinics specialized in treating addiction with injections of Vivitrol, a medication that can block the euphoric effects of drugs like heroin and OxyContin on the brain.
Before his arrest Kishore, who founded his for-profit company in 1996, had been widely quoted in newspaper stories about drug treatment methods. He has also authored op-ed pieces for The Patriot Ledger.
Two other men have already pleaded guilty to participating in the Medicaid kickback scheme and two more still face charges.
In June 2012, Damion Smith, a 42-year-old New Jersey resident and president of Fresh Start Recovery Coalition, received a two-year jail sentence, which was suspended for two years. Carl Smith, a 69-year-old Dorchester resident and manager of New Horizon House, in January received a two-year jail sentence suspended for two years.
Prosecutors’ case against Thomas Leonard, a Malden resident and part owner and manager of the Marshall House sober home in Malden, is ongoing. John Coughlin, a Carver resident and president of Gianna’s House Inc., which operates several sober houses located in Wareham, New Bedford, and Sandwich, began his trial Tuesday in Suffolk Superior Court.
Carl Smith L.M.H.C. aka Lil Dog, New Horizon House
Carl Smith L.M.H.C. aka Lil Dog, New Horizon House
BOSTON – MAD DOG pleaded guilty and was sentenced to jail, and has been ordered to pay $9.3 million in restitution for running an intricate Medicaid fraud scheme involving millions of dollars in taxpayer funds, Attorney General Maura Healey announced today.
BOSTON – MAD DOG pleaded guilty and was sentenced to jail, and has been ordered to pay $9.3 million in restitution for running an intricate Medicaid fraud scheme involving millions of dollars in taxpayer funds, Attorney General Maura Healey announced today.
Carl Smith
Prosecutors have said that, as labs aggressively competed to sign up addicts for testing some resorted to bribing sober home operators for exclusive access to their tenants. Several lab executives — including a Brookline doctor who treated Ahlgren — have also been indicted in schemes that, among other things, required addicts to undergo excessive urine testing — much more frequent than is typically recommended by substance abuse specialists. 
