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Editor: Mike Bothwell
Profession: Qui Tam Attorney

Category: Settlements and Verdicts

$1.1 million consent judgment has been entered against Cleveland psychiatrist Gulshan Sultan to resolve claims against her for alleged violations of the federal False Claims Act and the Tennessee Medicaid False Claims Act.

The consent judgement resolves a joint lawsuit brought by the federal and state governments in January of 2007, covering claims during 2001 through 2005. The suit was brought under both the federal False Claims Act and the Tennessee Medicaid False Claims Act, and alleged that the violations resulted in losses to the Medicare and TennCare programs of $267,253 for more than 6,000 false claims. The law provides for recovery of treble or triple damages as well as civil penalties for each false claim.

Specifically, the suit alleged that Dr. Sultan submitted false billing to the Medicare and the TennCare programs in two ways. First, she allegedly used two separate codes to bill under her own name when services in fact were being performed by a nurse without the requisite psychiatric training and licensing. She was also accused of submitting bills on over 200 separate days for face-to face, time-based psychotherapy services when she did not perform the services billed. As a result of these schemes, the complaint states that on a number of days Dr. Sultan claimed to have performed time-based services well in excess of 24 hours.

In addition to the consent judgment, in which Dr. Sultan agreed to pay $1.1 million to settle the claims alleged in the lawsuit and separate administrative claims of the Medicare program, Sultan earlier had pled guilty to certain criminal violations involving the false billing for psychiatric services performed by her nurse. She was sentenced on July 7, 2006, to two years probation and ordered to pay restitution of $3775 and a $5,000 fine for the federal criminal conviction. Due to her criminal conviction, Dr. Sultan is excluded from participating in the Medicare and TennCare programs.

Both the criminal prosecution and this civil consent judgment were the result of a joint investigation by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (TBI). The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services - Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), the United States Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Tennessee, the Office of the Attorney General of the State of Tennessee, and the TBI subsequently participated in the investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Elizabeth Tonkin oversaw the civil investigation and litigation for the U. S. Attorney's Office, while and Senior Counsel Peter Coughlan represented the State Attorney General's Office.