As reported by eTrib Live
A Monroeville psychiatrist accused of Medicaid fraud, theft and delivery of controlled substances had lost his license through Pennsylvania and Ohio suspensions.
The state attorney general's office on Thursday charged Jopindar P. Harika, 61, with more than 100 counts of Medicaid fraud, attempted Medicaid fraud, theft by deception, tampering with public records, delivery of a controlled substance and unlawful prescribing.
“I'm confident that once he has his day in court, we will be able to prevail in these charges,” said Jan Ira Medoff, Harika's attorney. “These are just allegations.”
Harika told a grand jury he was aware his license was suspended for 32 days in 2012 because of unpaid child support in Allegheny County when he is alleged to have seen 565 patients and written prescriptions for at least 453 patients at three mental health agencies in Philadelphia and Berks County.
According to the grand jury presentment, “Harika gave a variety of excuses as to why he continued to practice medicine when he knew that his license was suspended.”
Many of the clients that Harika reported seeing were not billed to Medicaid, but according to the presentment, Harika did bill $59,000 to Medicaid through three agencies: Multicultural Wellness Center in Philadelphia and Reading Behavioral Health Services and Child and Family Support Services in Reading.
The agencies paid him $73,380 in salary.
Administrators from the three facilities said they fired Harika at varying points in 2013.
Multicultural returned $135,000 in fraudulent billing based upon Harika's suspended medical license.
“A doctor's mission should be to provide the best treatment possible for patients, not exploit them to make money,” Attorney General Kathleen Kane said.
Harika is free on $25,000 bond.
According to a report from the State Medical Board of Ohio, Harika's problems began with a 1997 theft charge to which he pleaded guilty. The report stated that Harika billed Somerset State Hospital and Pennsylvania for medical services he did not provide. In 1999, he was sentenced to four years of probation, ordered to pay $84,609 in restitution to Pennsylvania and provide free treatment to mental health patients during the first two years or his probation.
Ohio suspended Harika's license to practice for at least two years; the Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine suspended his license for two months, fined him $700 and put him on probation.
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