A urologist is a doctor that specializes in urinary healthcare. Urologists diagnose and treat diseases of the urinary tract in both men and women, but also diagnose and treat anything involving the reproductive tract in men. They work in hospitals, private clinics and urology centers. If you have an issue with your urinary tract, seeking the help of a urologist is necessary. You just won’t be able to visit Mark Wilfred Tamarin.
As reported by the Central District of California branch of the United States Department of Justice, earlier this week, the 65 year-old Los Angeles-based urologist was sentenced to 71 months in prison for fraudulent billings of nonexistent patient visits and unnecessary tests. In addition to the prison sentence, Tamarin must also pay nearly $345,000 in restitution.
Tamarin submitted phony bills totaling more than $700,000 to Medicare.
He was found guilty back in July of 2019 following a seven-day trial. Guilty verdicts were handed down on six counts of wire fraud and one count of attempted health care fraud. He has been in federal custody ever since the end of the trial.
As evidence in the trial showed, Tamarin was a partner at Advanced Urology Medical Offices (AUMO) between 1987 and 2014. They had offices in Torrance and West Los Angeles. While working at AUMO, between January 2009 and January 2013, Tamarin billed Medicare for services he did not and could not have performed. He also ordered a number of medically unnecessary tests.
“Tamarin covered Kindred Hospital, a sub-acute medical center in Ladera Heights, for AUMO,” explains the DoJ report, “Kindred is a facility designed for patients with serious medical problems and in need of long-term care, but for whom a traditional hospital setting is unnecessary. There, he billed for numerous patient visits that never happened and for services he never provided.”
Tamarin often claimed to be in two places at once.
The DoJ report explains that evidence presented at the trial showed that, on several occasions between 2009 and 2013, Tamarin claimed he was treating patients in two different places – that were miles apart from each other – at the same time.
The medically unnecessary tests ordered by Tamarin for his patients were done at his AUMO office. He also went overboard, ordering two to three times the number of post-void residual (PVR) tests and renal ultrasounds for urology patients in comparison to his three medical partners.
As the DoJ report details, “Tamarin ordered so many PVRs that the office’s medical assistants suggested that the office purchase a second PVR machine. Tamarin ordered these tests before speaking with or seeing a patient despite the fact that the tests themselves only were appropriate in limited medical circumstances.”
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