New jersey physiatrist pays $2.25 million to resolve allegations of Double-Billing federal health care programs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
March 7, 2011 |
NEWARK, N.J. – Jersey City, N.J., physiatrist Monica Mehta, M.D., paid $2.25 million today in a civil settlement agreement with the New Jersey U.S. Attorney’s Office to resolve allegations that she double-billed federal health care programs, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
The government contends that Mehta, 62, of Watchung, N.J., who operates Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Services of Hudson County, P.A., and the Center for Evaluation and Treatment of Neuro-Muscular and Orthopedic Disorders, P.A., both in Jersey City, submitted duplicate bills to federal health care programs for physiatry and related services from January 1, 2004, through 2010. The civil settlement agreement reached between Mehta and the U.S. Attorney’s Office requires her to pay $2.25 million to the federal government in exchange for an agreement not to file suit. As part of the agreement, Mehta has also agreed not to bill the government for services provided to U.S. Postal Service employees for a period of one year from the date of the agreement.
U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Jane Hughes, Northeast Area Field Office, for the investigation leading to the settlement – as well as special agents of the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General and U.S. Office of Personnel Management.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Alex Kriegsman of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Civil Division in Newark.
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Counsel for Mehta: Alfred C. DeCotiis, Esq., Teaneck, N.J.
