A gynecologist in Memphis who reused unsanitary equipment on his patients was arrested on Friday and charged with sexually abusing patients over five years and profiting from insurance fraud, according to federal prosecutors and court records.
The gynecologist, Sanjeev Kumar, 44, persuaded four victims to travel to Tennessee from other states to engage in “illegal sexual activity,” according to an indictment.
Dr. Kumar also conducted scores of unnecessary medical tests and charged them to the government programs Medicaid and Medicare, according to the indictment.
“The allegations indicate that Kumar acted as a predator in a white coat and used the cover of conducting medical examinations to put his patients at risk and enrich himself,” Reagan Fondren, the acting U.S. attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, said in a statement.
Between September 2019 and June 2024, Dr. Kumar was the top-paid provider in the state for Medicare and Medicaid hysteroscopy biopsies, the indictment said. A hysteroscopy is a procedure that uses a thin, lighted tube inserted into a woman’s vagina to allow a doctor to observe the cervix and uterus, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
According to the indictment, Dr. Kumar “profited substantially” from billing Medicare and Medicaid for these procedures. Dr. Kumar billed the insurance agencies $2,515 each time for more than 40 procedures that were deemed fraudulent or not medically necessary, but it was not immediately clear how much he personally profited from those transactions.
Dr. Kumar instructed his staff to treat each patient as critical, according to the indictment, which meant that every new patient underwent Pap smear, ultrasound and hysteroscopy procedures, regardless of the treatment they were seeking.
In the course of treatment, Dr. Kumar consistently reused equipment that was marked as “single use,” without properly cleaning and disinfecting the equipment between patients.
He then billed Medicare and Medicaid for each patient visit as though he had used single-use equipment, despite reusing it, according to the indictment.
During this time, Dr. Kumar also coerced four victims into traveling to his Memphis clinic, where they engaged in “sexual activity for which a person can be charged with a criminal offense,” the indictment said. The victims traveled to Memphis “on multiple occasions,” according to federal prosecutors.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking to identify more victims and has asked the public for any information about Dr. Kumar, who practiced at the Poplar Avenue Clinic in Memphis.
The phone rang unanswered at the clinic on Saturday and its website appeared to have been taken down. There was no lawyer listed for the doctor in court documents and it was not immediately clear if her had legal representation. If found guilty, Dr. Kumar faces up to 31 years in prison and more than $500,000 in potential fines.
“This doctor put profit ahead of patients,” Joseph E. Carrico, a special agent with the F.B.I. Nashville field office, said in a statement. “The abusive behavior alleged here took place over five years, which means there could be many victims out there we have not heard from.”
The post Gynecologist Abused Patients While Defrauding Insurance, Officials Say appeared first on New York Times.
