UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA
ex rel. Lokesh Vuyyuru, M.D., ]
Plaintiffs, ]
vs. ] Civil Action No. ________
]
Gopinath Jadhav, M.D., ] DECLARATION
and ] OF
Community Health
Systems ] LOKESH
VUYYURU
Professional Services, Inc. ]
and ]
and ]
Columbia/HCA John Randolph, Inc. ]
Defendants. ]
Comes now Lokesh Vuyyuru, who states under penalty of perjury, that the following is true and accurate to the best of my knowledge and belief:
1. My name is Lokesh Vuyyuru, M.D.
2.
I am a medical physician, board certified in
Gastroenterology and previously in Internal medicine as well. I was previously licensed to practice
medicine in the
3.
I became director of Gastroenterology at
4.
I was a member of the committee for Gastroenterology at
5.
From on or about 1997 to 2003, I was a member of the
department of medicine at
6.
From on or about 2000 to 2002, I was the investigating
committee member for peer review at
7.
Gopinath Jadhav,
M.D (“Jadhav”) is a Gastroenterologist in the
8.
From on or about 1998 through 2003, I was a member of
the endoscopy committee at
9. I leaned that Dr. Jadhav while performing colonoscopies routinely took a biopsy of the Valvula Bauhini also known as Ileocecal Valve (“IC-Valve”) with a stated impression of “lipoma,” when he was unable to find a polyp. This practice continued through March 2005, and was reflected in medical records and actually observed by medical staff including but not limited to nurses Betsy Jernigan, Beverly Horton, Florence Challis and Donna Newmyer. (See eg. Exhibit 1) This practice extended to thousands of patients.
10. The IC-Valve always has an appearance similar to lipoma, which is a normal condition. (See eg. Exhibit 2)
11. Further, lipoma is a benign disease, which does not require any biopsy.
12. Dr. Jadhav conspired with SRMC and JRMC to perform the unnecessary medical procedures with the purpose of charging Medicaid and Medicare as well as private insurance companies for the unnecessary medical procedure for the sole purpose of enhancing his income and that of SRMC and JRMC.
13. As another example of the systematic practice of performing unnecessary medical procedures with the purpose of charging Medicaid and Medicare for the unnecessary medical procedures for the sole purpose of enhancing his income and that of SRMC and JRMC, Dr. Jadhav treated a 74 year old black female who was unable to swallow, had stopped eating and was unable to swallow barium. Under the circumstances, such a patient was clearly in need of an Esophago Gastro Duodonoscopy (“EGD”) with Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy (“PEG”) tube placement. Under such circumstances, it is medically unnecessary to perform an EGD with biopsy one day followed by PEG tube placement the following day. By performing the procedures on two separate days, Dr. Jadhav is able to bill for two procedures at a higher rate than if he performed the EDG with PEG tube placement which is all that is medically necessary. (Exhibit 3)
14. As
another example of the systematic practice of performing unnecessary medical
procedures with the purpose of charging Medicaid and Medicare for the
unnecessary medical procedures for the sole purpose of enhancing his income and
that of SRMC and JRMC, on
15. As another example of the systematic practice of performing unnecessary medical procedures with the purpose of charging Medicaid and Medicare for the unnecessary medical procedures for the sole purpose of enhancing his income and that of SRMC and JRMC, on 7/11/97, Dr. Jadhav performed an upper endoscopy on a 72 year old female and found benign gastric polyps. However, without any medical justification and completely unnecessarily, in just over one month he repeated an upper endoscopy making the same findings. (Exhibit 5)
16. As another example of the systematic practice of performing unnecessary medical procedures with the purpose of charging Medicaid and Medicare for the unnecessary medical procedures for the sole purpose of enhancing his income and that of SRMC and JRMC, on 11/27/2001, Dr. Jadhav performed a colonoscopy on a 72 year old female finding among other things, acute ischemic colitis involving the left colon and transverse colon.. Notwithstanding the findings, on the very same day Dr. Jadhav performed an EGD with biopsy, which was an unnecessary medical procedure. Further, 13 days later, Dr. Jadhav performed yet another colonoscopy with biopsy which was wholly medically unnecessary. (Exhibit 6)
17. As another example of the systematic practice of performing unnecessary medical procedures with the purpose of charging Medicaid and Medicare for the unnecessary medical procedures for the sole purpose of enhancing his income and that of SRMC and JRMC, on 12/14/1999, Dr. Jadhav performed a colonocopy on a 71 year old female and diagnosed her with, inter alia, acute colitis. However in 20 days, Dr. Jadhav repeated the colonoscopy, which was wholly medically unnecessary. (Exhibit 7)
18.
19. Additionally, Dr. Jadhav frequently billed for the procedure of a colonoscopy and upper-endoscopy when Dr. Jadhav failed to complete the procedure. The time expended by Dr. Jadhav for a colonoscopy were at times less than five minutes and for a upper-endoscopy less than three minutes, when to properly perform such a procedure more time would be required and further by failing to examine the colon thoroughly he would not observe the lesions, polyps and cancer, which was discovered by Relator when he reviewed the charts and performed a subsequent workup upon the patients. Despite being confronted with the results of the investigation by me, his practice was modified for only a short duration before he returned to the improper and fraudulent methods. JRMC and SRMC knew or should have known of the fact that the procedures were not being performed but were being billed and also billed for the procedures as completed procedures when the procedures were incomplete.
20. Additionally, I observed at SRMC (different than his practice at JRMC) that Dr. Jadhav routinely and in most cases did not provide a dictation for consults and failed to perform general multi-system examinations failing to follow CMS guidelines since 1997 for which he billed or caused to be billed to the United States Government as though the CMS guidelines were being met.
21. My knowledge is based upon personal observations, information provided to me by medical staff and patients and their families and review of medical records.
22. Attached hereto are copies of but a few of the overwhelming body of medical literature related to the IC Valve biopsies. (Exhibit 2)
23. In and about December 2001, the Chief of Staff from SRMC offered to me that if I kept silent with regard to the ongoing Medicare/Medicaid fraud that “They will make you rich” which I rejected. Later, another member of the Medical Staff for SRMC threatened me that if I did not back off, SRMC would hurt some of my friends. Eventually, SRMC conspired and did do injury to me by bring spurious charges to remove my hospital privileges and by filing charges against me with the Virginia Board of Medicine.
24. For another example of incomplete colonoscopies, the following information is provided:
a. On patient S___ G_____, at SRMC, the patient was bleeding from the rectum. The patient advised me that Dr. Jadhav stated that he completed a colonoscopy and did not find anything wrong after going all the way to the caecum. Due to the continued bleeding of the patient, I was requested by the patient, the patient’s family and the patient’s primary care physician to conduct a workup. I performed a colonscopy within a five day period of the date that Dr. Jadhav reported having conducted a colonoscopy. The colonoscopy revealed large and obvious colon cancer obstructing the hepatic flexure. Based upon the information provided by the patient, I understand that Dr. Jadhav billed either Medicaid or Medicare for a complete colonoscopy which could not have been performed.
25. The information contained herein is but a small example representative of the larger and consistent pattern and practice of Dr. Jadhav, SGA, SRMC and JRMC.
Lokesh Vuyyuru, M.D.
___________________________________ Date:__________