HARRISBURG – Agents from the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Section today arrested a Montgomery County foot doctor accused of submitting false insurance claims and bilking insurance companies out of more than $155,000.
Attorney General Tom Corbett said that Robert Kanowitz, 55 of Wynnewood, allegedly submitted claims for performing nail avulsions, which is a surgical procedure involving the partial removal of a toenail, when he was really only trimming toenails, which is not compensable under the Medical Assistance program.
Evidence and testimony regarding the alleged criminal activity was presented to a statewide investigating grand jury, which recommended the charges being filed today.
According to the grand jury, the investigation began when one of the insurance companies affected alerted agents from the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Section about Kanowitz due to his billing of an unusually high number of nail avulsions.
According to the investigation, Kanowitz allegedly billed various insurance companies for more than 3,600 nail avulsions from January, 2005, to January, 2008, and was paid more than $155,000 due to his fraudulent claims.
“Medicaid fraud is a crime that affects everyone in the form of increasing medical costs,” Corbett said. “Almost every Pennsylvanian is feeling the burden of rising medical fees, and our agents take these allegations very seriously.”
Corbett thanked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, for their assistance in the investigation.
Kanowitz is charged with one count of Medicaid fraud, one count of theft by deception and one count of receiving stolen property.
Kanowitz was preliminarily arraigned before Montgomery County Magisterial District Judge Karen Zucker and released on $50,000 unsecured bail.
The case will be prosecuted in Montgomery County by Deputy Attorney General Christian Sondergaard, Jr. of the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Section.