*Javaid Perwaiz, a Virginia OB/GYN, has been convicted of healthcare fraud which involved performing unnecessary hysterectomies on women.
Perwaiz, 70, was found guilty on 52 federal counts related to his alleged multi million-dollar scheme to bilk insurance companies. At the time of his 2019 arrest, he reportedly owned two private practices in Chesapeake, The Washington Post reported.
“In many instances, Perwaiz would falsely tell his patients that they needed the surgeries to avoid cancer in order to induce them to agree to the surgeries,” according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office press release.
“Doctors are in positions of authority and trust and take an oath to do no harm to their patients,” Karl Schumann, acting special agent in charge of the FBI’s Norfolk field office, said in a statement. “With unnecessary, invasive medical procedures, Dr. Perwaiz not only caused enduring complications, pain and anxiety to his patients, but he assaulted the most personal part of their lives and even robbed some of their future.”
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#BREAKING: A federal jury convicts OB/GYN Dr. Javaid Perwaiz of a fraud scheme in which he performed medically unnecessary surgeries and procedures on his patients, including irreversible hysterectomies. https://t.co/2WwYO6hOPF pic.twitter.com/RO6v0JtBeM
— FBI Norfolk (@FBINorfolk) November 9, 2020
Perwaiz allegedly induced pregnant patients early, “prior to the recommended gestational age that minimizes risk to the mother and baby, to ensure he would be able to conduct and be reimbursed for the deliveries,” the press release states.
He also billed insurers hundreds of thousands of dollars for procedures he never did.
Perwaiz reportedly pleaded not guilty to three counts of health-care fraud, two counts of aggravated identity theft and three counts of making false statements. He faces a maximum of 465 years in prison.
“I’m glad that he can’t do it to anyone else,” said Karen Lane, 53, a patient who had her uterus and ovaries removed by Perwaiz when she was in her early 30s, and now questions if it was necessary. “But . . . I still feel left out, like he didn’t get anything for what he did to me.”
Malpractice attorneys would not take up her case because the surgeries had happened too long ago, The Post reports.
“I still feel like he got away with it for me,” she said. “I don’t think anything is going to really make it better.”
Perwaiz ‘s sentencing is scheduled for March 31.
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