Chesapeake (Va.) Regional Medical Center pleaded not guilty Jan. 28 to allegations of healthcare fraud, conspiracy to defraud the U.S, and obstruction of government operations.
"As we have maintained from the outset, the government's case is unfounded and an excessive overreach and we are confident we will prevail in court," a hospital spokesperson said in a statement to Becker's.
The Chesapeake Regional Medical Center, formerly known as Chesapeake Regional Hospital, was indicted earlier this month. The lawsuit accused the hospital of allowing Javaid Perwaiz, MD, to perform unnecessary procedures and submitting fraudulent claims for reimbursements to Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers.
The hospital’s governing body, CHA, refuted the conspiracy and fraud allegations in a motion seeking to dismiss the case, asserting that it is employing legal defenses to uphold its rights as a state entity in Virginia.
"CHA emphasizes that it does not assert these defenses to avoid responding to the indictment's factual allegations or to circumvent responsibility for alleged criminal conduct," the hospital said in court documents. "Indeed, CHA categorically rejects as false the charges that it engaged in conspiracy and fraud. It asserts these threshold defenses, however, to safeguard and preserve important legal rights conferred upon it as an arm of the Commonwealth of Virginia."
From 2010 to 2019, Dr. Perwaiz and CRMC, who practiced at CRMC from 1984 until his arrest in 2019, allegedly conspired to defraud various healthcare programs, receiving approximately $18.5 million in reimbursements. The hospital is accused of enabling practices including elective inductions before 39 weeks of gestation without medical justification, misclassifying inpatient-only surgeries as outpatient procedures and sterilizing Medicaid patients without proper consent.
Dr. Perwaiz was convicted in 2020 on 52 counts of healthcare fraud, including unnecessary hysterectomies and elective early deliveries.
A status conference on Feb. 6 is expected to determine a trial date.