Bucks doctor’s pill-filled ‘goody bags’ lead to arrest in Pa., N.J. health-care fraud probe

A Bucks County doctor who pushed his patients to accept muscle relaxants, anti-inflammatory pills, and other sedatives in sacks he referred to as “goody bags” is among 15 medical professionals charged in a takedown of health-care fraudsters in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, federal authorities said Thursday.

Neil K. Anand, 42, allegedly failed to provide any dosage or usage instructions for the medically unnecessary prescription pills he handed out for free through companies with names like Institute of Advanced Medicine and Surgery that he based inside his Bensalem pain management clinic.

Anand and his staff recouped more than $4 million in fraudulent billings from their insurance companies between 2015 and this year, federal investigators said.

U.S. Attorney William M. McSwain announced the doctor’s arrest — and that of three other employees working in Anand’s office — at a news conference in Newark, where authorities highlighted the work of a specialized Justice Department task force formed last year to investigate Medicare fraud in the two states.

The cases unveiled in those states — as well as in New York, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. — portray a wide range of alleged crimes, including soliciting kickbacks, prescribing unnecessary medical devices, and unlawful distribution of controlled substances. In total, 48 people were charged and prosecutors alleged more than $800 million in losses.

Also charged in Eastern Pennsylvania was Timothy F. Shawl, 60, a Delaware County obstetrician accused of writing hundreds of medically unnecessary prescriptions for oxycodone to patients he had not personally examined.

In separate cases, 12 other individuals are accused of forging prescriptions for powerful opioids.

Anand remained in federal custody pending a bail hearing Monday.

Two foreign medical school graduates charged alongside him — Asif Kundi, 31, and Atif Mahmood Malik, 34, both of Philadelphia — are accused of writing prescriptions for more than 634,000 oxycodone pills on presigned pads when they did not have licenses to do so.

Anand, Kundi, Malik, and nurse practitioner Viktoriya Makarova, 33, of Philadelphia, each face one count of health-care fraud and one count of conspiracy to contribute controlled substances — crimes punishable by up to 10 years in prison, prosecutors said.

“Dr. Anand’s primary concern is the health and welfare of his patients," his lawyers, David P. Heim and Michael J. McCarrie, said in a statement. "He is not the guy the government has portrayed in this vague indictment. We look forward to clearing his name.”