CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) — Chesapeake Regional Medical Center (CRMC) has been charged with healthcare fraud, conspiracy to defraud the U.S., and interference with government functions following a federal grand jury indictment.
The indictment alleges that CRMC allowed Dr. Javaid Perwaiz to continue practicing at the hospital from 1984 until his arrest in 2019, despite his previous termination from another hospital for performing unnecessary surgeries. Perwaiz, who was convicted in 1996 for federal felonies, allegedly performed medically unnecessary procedures, including irreversible hysterectomies, causing harm to women.
Between 2010 and 2019, CRMC reportedly received $18.5 million in reimbursements from healthcare programs like Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE, and private insurers for procedures performed by Perwaiz. The indictment accuses both the doctor and the hospital of conspiring to defraud these programs by submitting false claims, including fraudulent obstetric deliveries for no medical reason before 39 weeks of gestation.
Jessica D. Aber, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said, “As alleged, Dr. Perwaiz didn’t act alone. The hospital played a complicit role in this scheme, prioritizing profit over patient safety.”
The indictment further claims that the hospital knew about Perwaiz’s misdeeds but allowed him to continue performing surgeries that violated healthcare regulations. This included misclassifying inpatient procedures as outpatient ones to receive higher reimbursements, and falsifying patient records, which resulted in harm to many of Perwaiz’s patients.
Perwaiz, a known figure in medical fraud, had been previously convicted of felony tax fraud in 1995. In 2020, he was convicted of 52 counts of healthcare fraud, receiving a 59-year sentence, 38 of those counts related to procedures performed at CRMC.
The ongoing investigation aims to bring justice to those affected by Perwaiz’s actions, with CRMC facing scrutiny for its role in enabling fraudulent practices that endangered patient lives.