Michael Drobot pleaded guilty just over a year ago to criminal charges related to paying more than $20 million in kickbacks and bribing California state Sen. Ron Calderon to preserve a loophole in state law that enabled him to charge insurers sky-high prices for spinal hardware used at the Pacific Hospital of Long Beach. The FBI has said the kickbacks-for-surgeries scam is believed to be the largest in California history. He is scheduled to be sentenced in October.
One of the next chapters in the story involves the State Compensation Insurance Fund Rico case against Drobot and others. Its 103 page Second Amended Complaint in the RICO case was filed in federal court this February. State Fund alleges it brought this action to recoup payments made to Defendants, who concealed the system of illegal kickbacks, fee-splitting, corporate practice of medicine, and other misconduct. The Complaint alleges detail on various illegal kickback and referral fees, and other “Fraudulent Schemes” such as overbilling, unbundling/upcoding, duplicate radiology billing, and issues with pharmaceutical billing. The lawsuit in effect alleges that Drobot created sham contracts with doctors and marketers that were dubbed research, management or option agreements. In reality, the lawsuit says, they were payola accounts to reward doctors for using Drobot’s medical firms.The State Fund Second Amended Complaint makes an interesting read if not a well documented tutorial on the dark side of the practice of medicine.
Michael Drobot now adds yet another interesting chapter in the legal struggle. A few weeks ago he filed a 15 page third-party complaint for equitable indemnity and declaratory relief against 22 doctors, health executives, chiropractors and a lawyer. Equitable indemnity says in theory that Drobot should not have to pay the State Fund, but if it ends up that he does, then he wants others to share the blame with him and pay the damages. Thus Drobot in his indemnity lawsuit is alleging that these 22 defendants are somehow involved in what the State Fund alleges he did. The lawsuit, in essence, says that if he has to pay any money to the State Fund, they should, also. So he has in effect implicated these entities and individuals.
One of Drobot’s defendants is California physician Faustino Bernadett who allegedly purchased the shares of Healthsmart through related companies, and was Chairman of the Board for several years. Healthsmart was a California corporation, with its principal place of business in Newport Beach, California, that operated and did business as Pacific Hospital of Long Beach. Bernadette claims to be board certified in anesthesiology and practices pain medicine in Long Beach. Of all the named defendants, Drobot is more specific in his allegations against Faustino Bernadett than he was against the others. Drobot alleges that Bernadett as Chairman and one of the Pacific Hospital owners was thus “knowledgeable of, and authorized, ratified and approved the acts and omissions of Healthsmart, PSPM, and FMM alleged in the SAC (Second Amended Complaint) to be unlawful.” Drobot therefore alleges that Bernadett was in effect one of the architects of the schemes.
Other physicians he implicates in the 15 page complaint are Mitchell G. Cohen, M.D., Philip A. Sobol M.D. who practices on Los Angeles as Sobol Orthopedic Medical Group, Inc., a California corporation, Alan C. Ivar a chiropractor doing business as Griffin Medical Group, Inc., a California corporation, and South Coast Rehabilitation Center, Inc., Jacob E. Tauber, M.D., as well as physicians Assad Michael Moheimani, Jeffery D. Gross, Timothy J. Hunt, Randy S. Rosen, Gerald J. Alexander, Riverside county physician Gurvinder S. Uppal, Ian I. Armstrong, Jack H. Akmakjian a physician in Riverside. Lokesh S. Tantuwaya M.D. from San Diego and Edward Komberg an Orange County Chirorpactor,
Paul Randall, Andy Navid, and Jason Bernard are named as a defendants because they were “marketers.” Michael E. Barri was a chiropractor and was a principal of, and did business as Jojaso Management, Inc., a California corporation. William Parker was a chiropractor and principal of, and did business as Union Choice Therapy Network. Samuel Vidaurreta was a principal of, Prospice Group, Inc., that referred business to Pacific Hospital.
Attorney Sean E. O’Keefe is also named in the Drobot complaint, He was an individual who allegedly referred patients to Pacific Hospital of Long Beach. He is an attorney in San Diego and a Certified Specialist in Workers Compensation. According to the Drobot allegations he also “engaged in acts and omissions alleged in the SAC to be unlawful” but these “acts” were not specified.
Without being specific, Drobot alleges that each of the above individuals and entities in some manner “engaged in acts and omissions alleged in the SAC to be unlawful” Keep in mind that these are at this point only allegations, and none of these allegations should be assumed to be true until proven in a court of law.
Thomas T. Haider M.D. was named in the case, but has now been dismissed. Dr. Haider has said that he has not taken any money of any kind from anyone for kickbacks.