Dr. Anwar and Mr. Sunik pleaded guilty to charges in April 2009, according to the release.
According to the charges, from May 2006 to June 2008, the Avenue K Medical Clinic billed automobile insurance companies under the no-fault program for medical “treatments” which were either never provided or unnecessary, because the person that was treated did not medically need the treatments. Under New York State law, no-fault insurance enables the driver and passengers of a vehicle registered and insured in New York to obtain benefits of up to $50,000 per person for injuries sustained in an automobile accident, regardless of fault, according to the release.
In the first two years of its operation, the Clinic billed insurance companies a total of approximately $3.6 million for no-fault medical services on behalf of more than 500 patients and, as of June 2008, had received approximately $1.2 million from these insurance companies, according to the release.
Dr. Anwar served as the Clinic’s nominal owner and treating physician, and, in that role, she performed perfunctory examinations of patients and recommended treatments she knew to be unnecessary. She also admitted to prescribing durable medical equipment and MRIs that were unnecessary, as patients were only slightly injured or not injured at all.
Mr. Sunik, the Clinic’s acupuncturist, routinely billed insurance companies for 30 minutes of acupuncture even though he often provided only a few minutes treatment, according to the release.
Dr. Anwar, Mr. Sunik and 10 others associated with the Clinic were arrested in July 2008, including two of the Clinic’s owners, Sviatoslav Jadan and Samuel Vilshanetski. Mr. Jadan was previously sentenced to 30 months in prison and Mr. Vilshanetski is scheduled to be sentenced on March 19, 2010, according to the release.
Dr. Anwar and Mr. Sunik were also sentenced to three years of supervised release and also ordered to pay restitution in an amount to be set at a later date.
Read the DOJ’s release on the New York City healthcare fraud mill (pdf).
