Last week a federal jury reportedly found a southern California doctor guilty after the reuse of single-use catheters and unnecessary medical procedures for Medicare beneficiaries were allegedly carried out under his supervision.
Dr. Donald Woo Lee of Temecula, Calif. was found guilty of adulterating a medical device along with seven counts of healthcare fraud, according to a report in MedTech Dive.
Lee was involved in a three-year scheme in which he recruited Medicare beneficiaries to his clinic, provided false venous insufficiency diagnoses and performed unwarranted vein ablation procedures, the website reported.
Lee allegedly gave the diagnoses, performed the procedures and, in connection, repackaged contaminated single-use catheters for reuse and submitted inappropriately coded claims to Medicare to receive more reimbursement.
In June 2016, the Press-Enterprise reported that Lee was accused of billing Medicare nearly $12.5 million for the unnecessary procedures performed at his clinics in Temecula and the Mira Loma area of Jurupa Valley. He was released on bond at the time. MedTech Dive reported that Lee pocketed $4.5 million from the procedures.
According to MedTech Dive, Lee’s sentencing is slated for March 2020 before Judge George Wu of the U.S. District Court for Central California.