Van Nuys Doctor Subject of Medi-Cal Fraud Probe

A Van Nuys pediatrician is under investigation by state authorities, who have alleged that he frequently filed Medi-Cal claims during 1982 and 1983 for medical services he did not perform.

An affidavit filed in Los Angeles Municipal Court by an investigator from the state attorney general’s office alleges that Dr. Irving Lipton conducted a “continuing scheme of submitting false or fraudulent Medi-Cal claims.”

The affidavit says that a state medical consultant studied Lipton’s billing records and concluded it was “absolutely impossible” or “impossible” for the physician to have performed all the medical services he claimed to have done on 115 days over a six-month period.

Home, Office Searched

The document does not give the total of the physician’s billings to Medi-Cal, California’s medical assistance program for low-income residents.

Lipton “regularly and frequently” provided a minimal medical service to a Medi-Cal beneficiary, then billed the Medi-Cal program for a more expensive service, according to the affidavit, written by Paul Mezzapelle, senior special investigator for the Medi-Cal Fraud Bureau of the attorney general’s office. The affidavit was filed in support of a request to search Lipton’s Encino home and his office at 7232 Van Nuys Blvd.

Court records state that, after a search warrant was obtained by investigators on Jan. 29, they seized his medical records and appointment books pertaining to his Medi-Cal patients. A full investigation into Lipton’s bills will take about eight weeks, officials said.

Attorney’s Response

Lipton could not be reached for comment, but his attorney, Albert C. Garber, called the accusations “the most ridiculous and unfair I’ve seen in 37 years of practice. There are so many outright lies, lies that can easily be proven wrong. We’re absolutely certain that the doctor has done nothing wrong.”

The search warrant affidavit describes statements to investigators allegedly made by several former employees of Lipton in which he is accused of demanding advance payment from Medi-Cal patients and of giving excessive immunizations.

According to the document, Lipton’s former office manager said the physician told one Medi-Cal patient that a Caesarean section was not worth his time because Medi-Cal only paid $37.50 for the procedure. However, he agreed to treat the woman it she would write him a personal check for $100, the affidavit says.

Garber called the charge “an absurdity.” “If the investigators can produce a medical patient that actually happened to, we will enter a plea of guilty,” Garber said. “That’s how much of a lie that is.”