Healthcare Practitioners to Pay over $1 Million to Resolve False Claims

Act Liability Arising from Billing of P-Stim Devices
U.S. Attorney’s Office – Western District of Texas, June 10, 2021

SAN ANTONIO – Three separate healthcare providers within the Western District of Texas have agreed to pay a collective $1,056,340.50 to resolve liability under the False Claims Act for the alleged improper billing of electro-acupuncture devices.

These providers – Ledger Foot & Ankle, P.A of Harker Heights, Superior Physical Medicine of Round Rock and Precision Spine and Pain Management of San Antonio – billed Medicare and/or TRICARE for the implantation of neuro-stimulators, a surgical procedure that usually requires an operating room and is reimbursable by federal healthcare programs. In these matters, the procedure billed actually involved a non-surgical, non-invasive application of the devices that is non-reimbursable by federal healthcare programs.

Between February 2018 and January 2020, Dr. Harold Ledger, DPM, of Harker Heights, through his practice, Ledger Foot & Ankle, P.A., billed Medicare for the application of ANSiStim devices to beneficiaries as though they were implantable neurostimulators. Certain Medicare beneficiaries were identified as also having TRICARE benefits that were further billed to the program as the secondary insurer. Dr. Ledger will pay a total of $535,000.00 to resolve his liability under the False Claims Act.

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