Court documents obtained by FOX13 provide insight into the FBI raid conducted on a women’s clinic in Memphis.
In April 2024, the Poplar Avenue Clinic Women’s Health and Med Spa on Poplar Avenue was subjected to a raid by state and federal agents. Joining forces with the FBI and TBI, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services of the Inspector General, an agency specializing in the investigation of Medicare, Medicaid, and other HHS programs for instances of waste, fraud, and abuse, was also present at the scene.
On Friday, February 28, FOX13 made the discovery that the focus of the investigation is Dr. Sanjeev Kumar, a doctor associated with the clinic. Dr. Kumar is a registered provider for both Medicare and Medicaid, with a specialization in gynecology and oncology. The indictment states that Dr. Kumar was the highest-paid provider in Tennessee for Medicare and Medicaid, particularly for his hysteroscopy biopsy services. It is alleged that the doctor made significant profits from his billings to Medicare and Medicaid for these services.
The indictment states that in order to generate and maintain significant profits, Kumar committed a series of crimes, frauds, and other acts that violated the trust of both the Medicare and Medicaid programs as well as his patients.
Officials are alleging that Kumar performed medical procedures that were unnecessary, reused medical devices that were labeled as “single use” without appropriately cleaning or sterilizing them after each use, and submitted false claims to health care insurance programs for these unnecessary procedures or for procedures using devices that were not regulated by the FDA.
Kumar made a significant profit from the hysteroscopy procedures, which involve using a hysteroscope to examine the inside of a uterus. These procedures require sterile medical devices to prevent infection. However, according to court records, Kumar allegedly reused single-use devices meant for hysteroscopy procedures on multiple patients.
According to a 30-page indictment, Kumar instructed his staff to prepare the mentioned single-use medical devices for reusing. This involved soaking them in a plastic container filled with cleaning agents in the exam rooms. Additionally, Kumar instructed the staff to change the cleaning agent every two weeks. In some instances, multiple single-use medical devices were placed together in the same container for soaking. Prior to reuse, the devices would be taken out of the cleaning agent and rinsed under tap water.
Kumar was accused by authorities of never disclosing to his patients or insurers at Medicare and TennCare that he was reusing single-use devices. They stated that Kumar prioritized his profits over patient safety by using adulterated medical devices instead of providing a new and sterile device for each procedure.
Kumar and his staff were accused in the indictment of regularly conducting unnecessary procedures. For instance, they performed a procedure for post-menopausal bleeding on a patient who was still having regular periods and had not yet gone through menopause. Similarly, another patient who had already gone through menopause and was not experiencing any post-menopausal bleeding also underwent an unnecessary procedure.
According to authorities, one of Kumar’s employees, under his instruction, conducted a hysteroscopy with endometrial biopsy on a 14-year-old girl during her initial gynecological visit for contraception.
The indictment states that Kumar conducted a minimum of 10 hysteroscopies that were unnecessary for one patient. Additionally, he falsely documented abnormal bleeding with blood clots for another patient.
Kumar’s staff was instructed to treat every new patient as critical, regardless of their age, complaint, reason for referral, or clinical presentation, according to the indictment.
If Kumar is found guilty of all 23 counts mentioned in the indictment, he could potentially face a prison sentence of up to 189 years.