Lawyers who put Florida’s Institute for Cardiovascular Excellence into bankruptcy have asked a federal judge to approve a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department, which accused the center of charging Medicare for patients who underwent medically unnecessary procedures, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The settlement would end the dispute between Justice Department officials and the medical practice run by Asad Qamar, an Ocala, Fla., cardiologist who was among the highest-billing doctors in the government insurance program in recent years. In early 2015, Justice Department lawyers said that they had joined a whistleblower lawsuit against the doctor alleging he billed the Medicare program for inserting stents in patients that weren’t medically necessary. Dr. Qamar denies wrongdoing. Under the deal, Dr. Qamar let the government keep $5.3 million in Medicare payments for patient services that were frozen when the practice was cut from the government health insurance program in May 2015, according to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Jacksonville, Fla. Dr. Qamar also agreed to pay $2 million once he sells his Manhattan condominium.
