Right now the country seems to be dealing with a high level of suspicion and skepticism, whether it be the many troubling news stories about police interactions, government behavior or insurance complications. But usually we don’t suspect that our doctor is trying to take advantage of us. We assume they want to help and heal.
However, Dr. Asad Qamar is facing the music now that the federal government (following information from whistleblowers) is claiming he billed patients for unnecessary, invasive procedures. This is especially disconcerting because he, a doctor in Florida, was Medicare’s highest-paid cardiologist in the country in 2012.
Modern Health explained the situation that came to the forefront Monday:
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The U.S. Justice Department has joined two lawsuits that allege Dr. Asad Qamar and his physician group, the Institute for Cardiovascular Excellence, billed Medicare for medically unnecessary procedures, including cardiac catheterizations. The procedure involves placing a patient under a large X-ray machine, attaching electrodes connected to an electrocardiogram machine to the patient, inserting a tube into a patient’s blood vessel and guiding it to the heart. Radioactive contrast dye is then injected through the catheter to help create images of the heart.
According to one of the lawsuits, it reports that Qamar and his physician group, the Institute for Cardiovascular Excellence, would frequently waive Medicare co-payments and deductibles so that patients would have no financial reason to turn down the treatments. Then they could just bill the government for the entire bill.
“Dr. Qamar practices under the highest medical and ethical standards,” Greg Kehoe, an attorney for Qamar with Greenberg Traurig said in a statement on Monday. “Any claims to the contrary are unsubstantiated and the doctor will defend himself vigorously against these baseless allegations.”
The complaint claims that Qamar and his institute took tens millions from the federal government and Florida. He did receive $18 million in Medicare reimbursements in 2012, according to The Wall Street Journal.
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The claims were filled previously, one in 2011 and one in 2014, but the seals on those claims were just recently lifted.
All of this gets a little bit more fishy because Qamar has been a prominent political donor, the WSJ reported.
Dr. Qamar is a prolific political donor. He and his family made nearly $300,000 in political donations between June 2008 and May 2014, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. All the donations went to Democratic candidates or to the Democratic Party. Of the nearly $300,000 donated, more than $110,000 was eventually returned, following media reports that Dr. Qamar had asked lawmakers to intercede on his behalf in a billing dispute with Medicare.
Of course this shouldn’t be an example of how so many honorable health workers approach the field and their service, but inevitably, this is disturbing. We’ll see how it unfolds.
