After extracting $85 million from a mobile imaging provider and its CEO last year, the Department of Justice is now targeting the company’s former chief financial officer.
U.S. attorneys have filed a complaint under the False Claims Act against Rick Nassenstein, the past president, CFO and co-owner of Illinois-based Cardiac Imaging Inc. They charge that the Florida resident “played a central role” in a scheme that involved paying physicians “exorbitant” fees to refer patients for cardiac PET scans.
Nassenstein and colleagues’ alleged actions violated the Physician Self-Referral Law and bilked the Medicare program of precious funds, the DOJ charged.
“Improper compensation arrangements unnecessarily drive up healthcare costs and cloud a physician’s medical judgment,” U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani said in a Feb. 5 announcement. “We are committed to enforcing the Stark Law and protecting Medicare from these types of improper financial relationships,” he added later.
The DOJ previously announced in October that Cardiac Imaging Inc. and its CEO Sam Kancherlapalli had agreed to pay $85 million to settle accusations they had violated the False Claims Act. Nassenstein’s alleged role in the kickback scheme spanned from “at least” 2017 through June 2023. Cardiac Imaging Inc. would purportedly pay cardiologists $500 or more per hour to supervise positron emission tomography scans for patients whom they had referred to the company. However, these fees “substantially exceeded fair market value,” often including time when the referrers were not on site during the exams.
Lynda Pinto, a former billing manager at Cardiac Imaging, originally filed the suit under the whistleblower provision of the False Claims Act. The federal government later intervened and took over the action. Pinto stands to collect a portion of the proceeds for alerting the feds about the alleged scheme.
Claims against the company and its two leaders are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability.
“We are pleased to reach the resolution announced today, and CII will continue to service patients across the nation with our fixed and mobile solutions, including our supervision program,” CEO Sam Kancherlapalli said in a statement issued in October. “CII remains deeply committed to providing patients with the leading cardiac care, and we’re excited to continue to drive our mission forward.”
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.