CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) — New charges have been filed against a Chesapeake obstetrician-gynecologist accused of performing unnecessary surgeries on patients, sometimes without their consent.
Dr. Javaid Perwaiz was arrested in November and charged with health care fraud and false statements related to health care matters in November.
On Thursday, the original case against Perwaiz was closed, and a new case was opened. The new case comes with new charges:
- One count of health care fraud-criminal forfeiture
- Four counts of health care fraud
- Four counts of false statements related to health care matters
- Two counts of aggravated identity theft.
Perwaiz is accused of stealing the identities of two of his patients. Authorities believe he used the Medicaid identification of one patient on March 18, 2016 and the social security number of another patient on Oct. 19, 2019 while allegedly committing health care fraud.
The federal case against Perwaiz illustrates a “health care fraud scheme” that spanned at least 10 years — from January 2010 until Nov. 8, 2019 when he was arrested, the federal criminal complaint states.
Perwaiz is accused of submitting false or fraudulent insurance claims to several health care providers, including Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Humana, and Sentara Optima, according to the federal criminal complaint.
The false and fraudulent insurance claims were allegedly for several types of medical procedures and gynecological surgeries, including colposcopies and hysterectomies. Authorities believe Perwaiz wrote symptoms and complaints that patients did not have into their medical records to justify the surgeries to the insurance providers, according to the federal criminal complaint.
Authorities also believe Perwaiz “aggressively encourages patients to consent to irreversible gynecological surgeries by reporting that they would develop cancer if they did not undergo the surgery.” He claimed to perform diagnostic procedures in his office and used the “results of those examinations to justify that a patient undergo surgery very quickly — at times as little as three days later,” the federal criminal complaint states.
“Some of these patients incurred permanent physical damage and injury,” the complaint alleged.
Perwaiz is accused of submitting “tens of thousands” of health insurance claims for diagnostic procedures and surgeries over the last 10 years.
Have a tip? Email Adrienne Mayfield (adrienne.mayfield@wavy.com) or Jason Marks (jason.marks@wavy.com).