ST. LOUIS: An Indian origin doctor in Des Peres (near St. Louis), Dr Krishnarao Rednam, 38, was sentenced to six months in prison, followed by four months of home confinement, two years of supervised release and a $30,000 fine after he pleaded guilty to a federal felony charge that involved obstructing a health care fraud investigation.

He was alleged to have destroyed medical records that were the subject of a federal investigation’s subpoena. According to US Attorney Catherine Hanaway. Rednam in his plead agreement admitted that he was purchasing a relatively inexpensive drug while repeatedly billing it to the Medicare program as a different and significantly more expensive drug.

This resulted in a significant increase in the revenue of St. Louis Eye Clinic, the group that employed Rednam. The St. Louis Eye Clinic conducted an audit to determine in January 2007 why the medical practice group’s revenues were significantly higher than expected. The audit indicated that the unexpectedly higher revenue was caused by Rednam’s actions.

After the audit, the medical practice group notified Rednam that it would be making a voluntary disclosure of the audit’s findings to the government. When the government began an investigation, it served a subpoena on the medical practice group, seeking, among other documents, the medical files for various patients receiving injections of the drugs. In his plea agreement, Rednam is stated to have admitted that he had removed or destroyed patient files that supported the billing for the more expensive drug while containing no proof that the cheaper drug was actually provided to the patient. Rednam agreed to pay $304,225 to the United States in a related civil settlement deal.

He would now be excluded from participation in the Medicare program for a period of five years. The St. Louis Eye Clinic, who had employee Rednam also agreed to pay $251,551 to the United States in a separate civil settlement agreement regarding Rednam’s claims to Medicare for the three drugs. Both the employer and Rednam would repay the patients’ co-insurance payments that they made when receiving injections.