Admin l Wednesday, September 7, 2022
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – United States Attorney Will Thompson and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services-Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) announced today that Dr. Craig M. Morgan and Eye Consultants of Huntington Inc. have paid $907,074.64 to resolve allegations that they submitted false claims to Medicare and Medicaid.
From January 13, 2013 through April 12, 2019, Morgan routinely administered vascular endothelial growth factor inhibitor injections into the eyes of patients to treat purported wet age-related macular degeneration (Wet-AMD) or other ophthalmological conditions for which treatment with such injections is indicated. These injections were not medically necessary because the patients in question did not have treatable Wet-AMD or any other condition that would have warranted the invasive treatment at the time it was administered.
“This settlement is important because it shows that this office, along with its federal partners, will aggressively seek re-imbursement when taxpayer money is spent wrongly,” Thompson said. “When a person goes to a medical provider, they expect the medical provider to treat them, not for the medical provider to figure out ways to enrich themselves.”
Morgan was identified by HHS-OIG as one of the top outliers for billing the Medicare program across all medical specialists in West Virginia, far exceeding the average of Medicare claims submitted by his peers. The vast majority of payments Morgan received from Medicare were for injections for purported treatment of Wet-AMD.
“Providers who perform medically unnecessary procedures damage the trust of physician-patient relationships and exploit taxpayer-funded programs,” said HHS-OIG Special Agent in Charge Maureen Dixon. “HHS-OIG, and our law enforcement partners, are committed to working together to protect the integrity of federal health care programs.”
The case was investigated by HHS-OIG and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in collaboration with the United States Attorney’s Health Care Fraud Task Force, which brings together federal, state, and local law enforcement partners from numerous agencies to coordinate intelligence sharing and prosecution of health care fraud impacting Medicare, Medicaid, and other public health care programs.
“I commend their investigative work and the handling of this case by Assistant United States Attorneys Gregory Neil, Matthew Lindsay, and Jennifer Mankins,” Thompson said.
