David B. Fein, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, today announced that MARK W. IZARD, M.D., a physician with a medical practice located at 85 Seymour Street, Hartford, Connecticut, and MARK W. IZARD, P.C., his professional corporation, have entered into a civil settlement with the government in which they will pay $2.2 million to resolve allegations that IZARD violated the False Claims Act.
U.S. Attorney Fein explained that the allegations against IZARD involve fraudulent billing to Medicare and Medicaid for medical services allegedly provided at various Hartford-area nursing homes, as well as at Hartford Hospital. The government alleges that IZARD billed Medicare and Medicaid for services he supposedly provided to patients in nursing homes when the patients were, in fact, not present in the nursing homes. Instead, the patients had been transferred to local hospitals for treatment. Yet IZARD billed government health care programs as if he had provided medical services to the patients in the nursing homes.
In addition, the government alleges that IZARD improperly billed Medicare and Medicaid for medical services at Hartford Hospital that were actually provided by Hartford Hospital nurses and medical residents. IZARD would regularly bill for services when the medical note in the patients’ charts clearly indicated that the services in question were performed by Advanced Practice Registered Nurses or Hartford Hospital medical residents. It was IZARD’s regular practice to countersign the note in question and to not include his own note reflecting any services he allegedly performed as the attending physician.
Pursuant to these improper billing practices, IZARD was able to bill the government on numerous occasions for more than 24 hours of medical services in a single day.
To resolve their liability under the False Claims Act, IZARD and his professional corporation will pay $2.2 million, in order to reimburse the Medicare and Medicaid programs for conduct occurring between July 1, 2004 and April 30, 2009.
In addition, under the terms of the settlement agreement, IZARD and his professional corporation are excluded from Medicare, Medicaid, and all other federal health care programs, for a period of seven years. This exclusion has national effect and prohibits IZARD and his professional corporation from receiving payment from any federal health care program during the exclusion period. It also prohibits payment to any individual or entity, such as a hospital, which employs or contracts with IZARD, for any services furnished, ordered, or prescribed by IZARD.
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