Physician Receives 15-Year Exclusion and Pays $1.5 Million

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) reported that the OIG will exclude Jospeh A. Raia, M.D. from participation in all Federal health care programs for at least 15 years for submitting false and fraudulent Medicare claims.  Dr. Raia also agreed to pay $1.5 million in assessments and penalties.  Specifically, between January 2006 and November 2011, Dr. Raia allegedly submitted, or caused to be submitted thousands of claims for physical therapy and related physical medicine and rehabilitation services to Medicare for services that were never provided or otherwise false.  Further, the OIG alleged that Dr. Raia improperly used chiropractors to provide physical therapy services “incident to” his professional services; and routinely submitted claims for time-based procedures that exceeded 24 hours in one day.

The OIG news release is available at:

http://oig.hhs.gov/newsroom/news-releases/2014/raia-cmp.asp.

Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General.  “Physician Agrees to $1.5 Million Payment and 15-Year Exclusion To Settle Civil Monetary.”  News Release.  12 Mar. 2014.