In addition to the prison sentence, Judge Alicemarie Stotler ordered Dr. Kooshian to pay $660,955 in restitution to 18 insurance companies for 21 patients who were subdosed.
According to the release, Dr. Kooshian operated clinics under the names Valley View Internal Medicine Group at two locations in Garden Grove and Ocean View Internal Medicine Group in Laguna Beach and Long Beach. He pleaded guilty one year ago to two counts of healthcare fraud and two counts of making false statements relating to healthcare matters.
Dr. Kooshian specifically admitted that he and his assistant, Virgil Opinion of Anaheim, Calif., improperly billed patients’ health insurance companies for medications used to treat problems relating to AIDS, HIV and hepatitis. The medications included Epogen, which is used to treat anemia; Interferon, which is used to treat Kaposi’s sarcoma; and Immunogammaglobulin, which is used to treat peripheral neuropathy or numbness of the extremities, according to the release. The false billings included billing for medication when patients received only saline, continuing to bill for administering the medication when the patient was no longer taking it and billing as if the medication had been administered in the office by medical personnel when the patient had been self-injecting the medication at home.
Mr. Opinion pleaded guilty to participating in the scheme and in Sept. 2009, was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay the restitution jointly with Dr. Kooshian, according to the release.
Read the DOJ’s release on Dr. George Steven Kooshian.
