Home Care:
BEWARE GIFTS TO REFERRING DOCTORS
Published on Wed Sep 24, 2003
Health care marketing practices remain in the cross-hairs - and not just for big pharma. Providers' marketing practices can get them into more trouble than ever before. A former home health agency owner and his brother face a 20-count felony indictment in federal court. Amjad Khan, president of now-defunct Warren, MI-based American Home Health Care, and Iftakhar Khan, who headed Livonia-based Michigan Rehabilitation and Pain Management, stand accused of Medicare and other fraud, reports The Detroit News. Prosecutors charge the Khans with billing Medicare for excessive gifts for physicians, and for marketing staff who gave doctors gifts in return for referrals to the companies. The Khans listed the marketers as clinical supervisors, nurses or billing staff, the paper says. Prosecutors also allege the men paid their wives as top executives when the wives really did little or no work for the companies. Finally, outside companies controlled by Amjad Khan submitted false invoices to the two companies, the government said.