Cardiology Group to Pay Nearly $5 Million for Alleged Vein Ablation Fraud

An Arizona physician group will pay $4.75 million to resolve allegations that doctors violated the False Claims Act by performing medically unnecessary vein ablations, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced.

Federal agents allege that three cardiologists at Tri-City Cardiology, in the Phoenix metro area, knowingly performed ablations on perforator veins that did not qualify for treatment under accepted standards of medical practice. It is reported that from Jan. 1, 2017, to April 27, 2022, they manipulated records of outward blood flow, the diameter of veins, patient symptoms, and conservative therapy measures to give the appearance that the ablations were justified.

The perforator veins form short connections between deep and superficial veins. Radiofrequency ablation can be used to close veins affected by valve damage and retrograde blood flow.

“Paying for unnecessary medical procedures reduces federal programs’ capacity to pay for truly necessary procedures,” said Timothy Courchaine, United States Attorney for the District of Arizona. “When medical providers do not respect the difference between the two and bill in the interest of their own bottom line instead of their patients, the United States Attorney’s Office has pursued and will continue to pursue appropriate recoveries to protect taxpayer funds.”

“Physicians should not prioritize profit over patient needs,” said Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate in a statement. “Medicare and other federal programs pay only for medical care that meets accepted standards, and the falsification of medical records undermines efforts to assess whether medical care was appropriate.”

Defendants Jaskamal Kahlon, MD, Joshua Cohen, MD, and M. Joshua Berkowitz, MD, deny the allegations but agreed to settle in order to avoid the delay, uncertainty, inconvenience, and expense of protracted litigation of the DOJ’s claims.

Of note, a vascular surgery practice in Florida had similarly settled with federal officials in 2018 to resolve allegations of submitting false claims for reimbursement of medically unnecessary vein ablation procedures. That case resulted in a $2.23 million settlement.

Medically unnecessary vein ablations were the subject of yet another DOJ Medicare fraud case involving a California doctor. In 2022, the physician was sentenced to over 7 years in prison for an approximately $12 million fraud and device adulteration scheme.

Early this year, the DOJ announced that False Claims Act settlements and judgments reached a new high, exceeding $6.8 billion in fiscal year 2025.

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