PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A behavioral health center with three Philadelphia locations is facing a civil suit.
The United States alleges that Dr. Ghodrat Pirooz Sholevar and his nonprofit firm Nueva Vida Multicultural/Multilingual Behavioral Health violated the False Claims Act and state common law by fraudulently billing Medicaid for thousands of med checks, appointments where a psychiatrist assesses the efficacy and effects of a prescribed drug, including controlled substances, on a patient, and other services that did not occur from 2009 to 2017. He received millions of dollars at a rate more than double the median salary during that time.
They say he billed Medicaid as if he had met with each patient for at least 15 minutes — when, in reality, Sholevar spent well below the required time with them.
Officials say Sholevar would have had to conduct 21 hours of appointments daily to meet the rate at which he billed them.
Nueva Vida, which was terminated from the Medicaid program in 2017, maintained an administrative office at Sholevar’s home in Narberth, Montgomery County, and now-defunct facilities including two in Fairhill and one in North Philadelphia.
Sholevar and Nueva Vida could not be reached for comment.