Doctor and Clinics Indicted in Laser Surgery Scams

A California-based chain of laser eye clinics and the physician who founded it were indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday on charges of defrauding the Medicare program.

Dr. Antoine L. Garabet, 45, of San Dimas, and his Laser Eye Centers are accused of billing Medicare for surgeries that were not performed or overbilling for others.

The indictment did not specify how much money, if any, Medicare lost through the alleged billing scam.

But U.S. Atty. Alejandro N. Majorkas said Garabet bilked the health care program for the elderly “out of pure greed.”

Garabet’s lawyer, Bryan Altman, said his client “looks forward to proving his innocence” when the case goes to trial.

The indictment accuses Garabet and his chain of 23 eye surgery centers of cheating Medicare through two illegal billing practices between 1995 and 1997.

In one alleged scheme, the indictment said Garabet would get Medicare patients to sign consent forms agreeing to undergo laser eye surgery for treatment of glaucoma or retinal disease.

“He would then go through a series of motions with the patient to make it appear as if a laser eye surgery procedure was being performed when, in fact, it was not,” the indictment said.

Garabet was also accused of overbilling for laser surgeries performed at his clinics. The indictment said he falsified patient records to circumvent a Medicare regulation designed to limit payments to doctors for certain services.

Under the regulation, an ophthalmologist performing surgery on a patient’s two eyes is reimbursed at 100% of the fee schedule for the first eye and 50% for the second eye if the surgeries occurred in one session.

To inflate his reimbursement, Garabet allegedly ordered Laser Eye Centers personnel to have patients sign consent forms indicating they had agreed to operations on consecutive days, the indictment charged.

He also directed employees to create fraudulent “fee tickets” to show that the surgeries were performed on different days when they actually occurred on the same day, according to the indictment.

Laser Eye Centers has clinics in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Francisco and Santa Clara counties.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Larry Ng, who is prosecuting the case, said Garabet will be allowed to surrender at a date that remains to be set. Garabet and Laser Eye Centers are each charged with 22 fraud counts.