TEXAS — Officials have rounded up all the medical professionals accused of benefiting from kickback schemes. Fifteen Texas doctors are to pay $2.83 million to settle False Claims Act allegations and work with the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) investigations of and litigation against other parties.

According to investigators, physicians generated illegally incentivized referrals of federal health care programs to receive payments, violating both Anti-Kickback and Stark Statutes.

“The Anti-Kickback and Stark Statutes help protect the integrity of federal health care programs,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “We will continue to pursue both individuals and corporations responsible for schemes that violate these important safeguards.”

“These settlements should reinforce the message that the Eastern District of Texas will not tolerate health care providers who seek to enrich themselves through kickback schemes,” said U.S. Attorney Brit Featherston for the Eastern District of Texas. “We will continue to work with our agency partners to identify those who defraud our taxpayers and we will hold those who have engaged in the schemes responsible.”   

These laws are supposed to keep medical providers in line with putting their patients’ best interest in the forefront instead of making money off fraudulent referrals. The Anti-Kickback Statute forbids health professionals from profiting off falsely documented referrals for Medicare, Medicaid and other federally funded programs’ services. As for the Stark Law, it stops hospitals or laboratories that have a financial relationship with physicians from charging Medicare for “designated health services.”

Investigators say doctors received thousands of dollars as payment from nine management service organizations (MSOs) for ordering laboratory tests from Rockdale Hospital dba Little River Healthcare (Little River), True Health Diagnostics LLC (True Health) and/or Boston Heart Diagnostics Corporation (Boston Heart).

LIST OF DOCTORS TO SETTLE:

  • Louis Coates, D.O., of Garland, Texas, agreed to pay $87,694 to settle allegations that from Sept. 26, 2016, to March 14, 2018, he received kickbacks from an MSO, Herculis MG LLC, in return for ordering laboratory tests from Boston Heart.
  • Jason DeMattia, M.D., and Candice DeMattia, M.D., both of Tomball, Texas, agreed to pay $316,142 and $207,009, respectively, to settle allegations that from Aug.1, 2014, to Dec. 31, 2016, they received kickbacks from two MSOs, North Houston MSO Group Inc. and Tomball Medical Management Inc., in return for ordering laboratory tests from True Health and Little River.
  • Emanuel Paul (E.P.) Descant II, M.D., of Spring, Texas, agreed to pay $256,466 to settle allegations that from Jan. 5, 2015, through Feb. 3, 2018, he received kickbacks from two MSOs, North Houston MSO Group Inc. and Tomball Medical Management Inc., in return for ordering laboratory tests from Little River.
  • Mitchell Finnie, M.D., of San Antonio, Texas, agreed to pay $582,522 to settle allegations that from June 4, 2015, to July 11, 2017, he received kickbacks from two MSOs, Alpha Rise Health LLC and Tango Rise Health Solutions LLC, in return for ordering laboratory tests from Boston Heart, True Health and Little River.
  • Mark Le, M.D., of Tomball, Texas, agreed to pay $57,900 to settle allegations that from May 9, 2016, to Sept. 22, 2017, he received kickbacks from two MSOs, North Houston MSO Group Inc. and Tomball Medical Management Inc., in return for ordering laboratory tests from True Health and Little River.
  • Richard Le, M.D., of Houston, Texas, agreed to pay $41,000 to settle allegations that from Sept. 29, 2016, to Aug. 24, 2017, he received kickbacks from two MSOs, North Houston MSO Group Inc. and Tomball Medical Management Inc., in return for ordering laboratory tests from True Health and Little River.
  • Robert Jeremy Laningham, M.D., and Rodney Jason Laningham, M.D., both of Conroe, Texas, agreed to pay $470,560 to settle allegations that from Aug. 8, 2015, through July 6, 2016, they received kickbacks from two MSOs, SYNRG Partners LLC and Transparity Associates LP in return for ordering laboratory tests from Boston Heart, True Health and Little River.
  • Andres Mesa, M.D., of Houston, Texas, agreed to pay $45,484 to settle allegations that from May 1, 2016, to Jan. 9, 2018, he received kickbacks from an MSO, Transparity Associates LP, in return for ordering laboratory tests from Boston Heart and Little River.
  • Melissa Miskell, D.O., of New Braunfels, Texas, agreed to pay $100,392 to settle allegations that from July 13, 2015, to Dec. 14, 2017, she received kickbacks from an MSO, Alpha Rise Health LLC, in return for ordering laboratory tests from Boston Heart and Little River.
  • Marco Munoz, M.D., of Fort Worth, Texas, agreed to pay $54,280 to settle allegations that from July 7, 2015, to April 6, 2016, he received kickbacks from an MSO, Alpha Rise Health LLC, in return for ordering laboratory tests from Boston Heart and Little River.
  • Kozhaya Sokhon, M.D., of the Woodlands, Texas, agreed to pay $160,456 to settle allegations that from Jan. 16, 2015, to May 18, 2018, he received kickbacks from two MSOs, SYNRG Partners LLC and Transparity Associates LP, in return for ordering laboratory tests from Boston Heart and Little River.
  • Annie Varughese, M.D., of the Woodlands, Texas, agreed to pay $213,888 to settle allegations that from Sept. 1, 2015, to Nov. 17, 2017, she received kickbacks from three MSOs, SYNRG Partners LLC, Transparity Associates LP, and North Houston MSO Group Inc., in return for ordering laboratory tests from True Health and Little River.
  • Paul Worrell, D.O., of Dallas, Texas, agreed to pay $237,487 to settle allegations that from Oct. 9, 2015 to Dec. 31, 2017 he received kickbacks from three MSOs, Ascend MSO of TX LLC, Eridanus MG LLC and BDS Healthcare LLC, dba Vybrem Labs, in return for ordering laboratory tests from Boston Heart, True Health and Little River.

“This outcome is the result of cooperation amongst law enforcement partners focused on upholding the integrity of federal health care programs,” said Special Agent in Charge Miranda L. Bennett of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG). “We will continue to pursue physicians engaging in improper financial relationships to ensure patients are receiving quality medical care.”

Fifteen of the 33 doctors settled to resolve, cooperating with the DOJ to assist with further cases.

“Former True Health CEO Christopher Grottenthaler, former Boston Heart CEO Susan Hertzberg, former Little River CEO Jeffrey Madison, and others are defendants in a separate False Claims Act lawsuit in which the United States filed an amended complaint in May 2022. That pending case is captioned United States ex rel. STF, LLC v. True Health Diagnostics, LLC, et al., No. 4:16-cv-547 (E.D. Tex.). If a defendant is found liable for violating the act, the United States may recover three times the amount of its losses plus applicable penalties,” according to the DOJ.

The legal efforts of Civil Division’s Commercial Litigation Branch, Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas, with assistance from HHS-OIG, DCIS and VA-OIG, led to the recovery of over $32 million in relation to health care fraud schemes involving Boston Heart, True Health and Little River, including False Claims Act settlements with 33 physicians, two health care executives and one laboratory.