Two Ohio Doctors Illegally Distributed Opioids, DOJ Says

MORELAND HILLS, OH — Two Moreland Hills doctors, with practices throughout Northeast Ohio, are being charged with illegally distributing opioids and other drugs and also providing unnecessary tests and procedures in a scheme to defraud insurance providers. The 24-count indictment against the couple was announced Wednesday.

Doctors Ashis Rakhit, 65, and Jayati Rakhit, 56, are married. The couple has practices in Strongsville, Parma and Cleveland. They've both been charged with distribution of controlled substances, conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, healthcare fraud and making false statements relating to healthcare, the Department of Justice said.

“Not only did these physicians put their patients through unnecessary medical procedures so they could line their pockets with extra income, they also prescribed controlled narcotics that were not medically required,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Stephen D. Anthony. “Given the current opioid epidemic, prescribing unnecessary narcotics only further contributes to this crisis."

The indictment against the Rakhits says they intentionally distributed controlled substances outside the course of their medical practice. Ashis is charged with distributing Percocet and Xanax in 2017 while Jayati is charged with distributing Tramadol, an addictive pain-killer, the indictment said.

According to the DOJ, the Rakhits would order unnecessary tests for patients, including nuclear stress tests, cardiac catheterizations, bone density scans, echocardiograms, EKGs, carotid artery scans, venous ultrasounds of the legs and more. This took place between 2011 and 2018.

To justify the tests, the doctors would record fake symptoms for patient records, justifying the tests, the indictment against them says. They would sometimes write that a patient was suffering from shortness of breath, palpitations, hypertension and other ailments.

The Rakhits then billed Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers with inflated codes to reflect a "service more costly than that which was actually performed," the DOJ said.

The doctors specialized in cardiovascular disease and internal medicine. They both worked with St. Vincent Charity Medical Center and operated the Ohio Cardiology Associates, Inc, with locations in Strongsville, Parma and Cleveland.

“This couple violated the trust of their patients, the taxpayers and the community,” U.S. Attorney Justin E. Herdman said in a statement. “They performed unnecessary medical tests and billed for services they didn’t actually provide in exchange for prescription medications – all of this at a time when our region is inundated in opioid deaths and addiction.”

The investigation is ongoing and is being led by the FBI, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, – Office of Inspector General, Ohio Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Roughly 75 percent of people who abuse heroin say their addiction started with prescription pain killers, according to a study from Johns Hopkins University.

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