A Florida ophthalmology practice and its former owner have agreed to pay $415,000 to resolve False Claims Act allegations related to fraudulent billing for brain blood flow diagnostic tests, the Justice Department said in an April 22 news release.
Between September 2018 and March 2020, Boca Raton-based Mitchell Eye Center and Alan Mitchell, MD, allegedly caused the submission of false claims to Medicare and the Veterans Health Administration for transcranial doppler tests. The practice received per-referral payments from diagnostics company Eyecuity for TCD test referrals in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute, and physicians signed order forms indicating patients had a rare condition — Vertebrobasilar Insufficiency — without having reason to believe those diagnoses were accurate.
Mitchell Eye Center and Dr. Mitchell admitted to and accepted responsibility for the facts underlying the settlement.
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