Federal prosecutors say a Middlesex County podiatrist bilked the government of hundreds of thousands of Medicare dollars by submitting claims for treatments that were little more than massaging feet and clipping toenails.
A civil complaint filed in federal court in Newark said Ming Tung, who lives in East Brunswick and has offices there and in Jersey City, ignored warnings about improper billings, instead filing more claims.
Two years ago, authorities say, Tung received $856,000 in Medicare payments, or nearly 24 times the average reimbursement for a New Jersey foot doctor. Last year his filings topped $1.6 million.
In many cases, Tung billed for visits to low-income apartment complexes in Middlesex and Hudson counties, where he allegedly gave foot massages in the lobbies.
Prosecutors sought and received from U.S. District Judge Katharine Hayden a temporary restraining order Tuesday banning Tung from billing Medicare or Medicaid at least until a Jan. 30 hearing.
The judge's order also requires Tung to turn over to federal investigators administrative records related to his practices. Agents are hoping the records will allow them to determine an exact dollar amount for the alleged fraud.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Stuart Minkowitz, who filed the complaint, said authorities hope to find more evidence and persuade the judge to enter an injunction against Tung.
"We're going to try to shut him down," he said.
Tung now faces only civil penalties. But with the complaint was an affidavit from an agent at the federal Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services who described the probe as "a criminal investigation."
Tung, 61, didn't return a call seeking comment yesterday. His attorney, Robert Conroy, said his client was innocent of any wrongdoing and that he looked forward to proving that in court.
"We believe that the government just got its facts wrong -- period," Conroy said. "And we believe their own documents will demonstrate that."
Medicare and Medicaid fraud is believed to cost the government billions of dollars each year.
In the past three years, the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey has brokered settlements of more than $13 million from hospitals and health care companies that admitted overbilling Medicare, not including the recent agreement with the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.
The allegations against Tung, however, rival any for an individual practitioner. Tung received his medical license in 1981, according to state records.
Government auditors twice before raised questions about Tung's practices. But prosecutors say the problem got worse, not better.
According to the affidavit, Tung collected more Medicare reimbursements since 2003 than any podiatrist in the New Jersey-New York region -- and they say much of that was undeserved. Between January 2002 and June 2003, they contend, three-quarters of Tung's filings were fraudulent, leading to $530,000 in overpayments.
He is accused of violating "numerous federal statutes" including health care fraud by performing "routine foot care" but calling it complex medical treatment.
The complaint said Tung's claims suggested he sometimes worked 24 hours a day and that he often sought reimbursements for "home visits" to treat patients with extensive foot infections.
Investigators allege the visits were really to apartment building lobbies -- identified only by the counties in which they are located -- where the foot doctor met people who weren't desperate for treatment or eligible to have Medicare pay for it. Some told agents they wouldn't have sought treatment if Tung didn't come to them.
"Tung rarely spends more than a few minutes with each patient, and he typically does nothing more complicated than clipping toenails and massaging feet," the complaint stated.
Prosecutors said Tung waited before filing claims, then simultaneously submitted mounds of them on paper, rather than electronically, to overwhelm auditors.
"These practices demonstrate an effort by Tung to avoid detection," the complaint said.
Tung's attorney argued that government investigators weren't equipped to evaluate patients' medical needs or the treatment they received.
Conroy suggested the alleged volume of submissions might be flawed because Tung could have worked with several doctors who used his Medicare billing account.
"The numbers do lie," Conroy said. "They represent to the court that was billing for a single podiatrist."
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