Las Vegas Cancer Doctor Agrees to Pay U.S. Department of Justice $486,000 to Resolve Medicare Fraud Allegations
Las Vegas, Nev. – A Las Vegas physician who specializes in radiation oncology has entered into a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to resolve civil allegations of health care fraud to the Medicare program, announced Daniel G. Bogden, United States Attorney for the District of Nevada.
The settlement agreement, effective Sept. 17, 2012, states that Navneet Sharda, M.D., who owns and operates Cancer Care Center in Las Vegas, has agreed to pay $486,000 to the United States to resolve allegations that from Jan.1 2006, through March 30, 2010, he made improper billings to Medicare. Dr. Sharda allegedly overbilled federal health care insurance programs such as Medicare, TRICARE, and the FEHB, by unbundling the billings for the treatments he provided. Unbundling is when a doctor splits the billing for a major procedure into several smaller procedures in order to obtain more money from the government than the doctor is entitled to receive.
The settlement agreement states that it is neither an admission of liability by Dr. Sharda nor a concession by the United States that its claims are not well founded.
Assistant United States Attorney Roger Wenthe handled the case on behalf of the U.S. Attorney's Office. The case was investigated by the Office of the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
