Anesthesiologist Narinder S. Grewal, MD, will pay the United States government more than $1 million and the state of California almost $113,000 to resolve allegations that he submitted fraudulent bills and received improper payments from federal and state health insurance programs, federal officials say.

The settlement is the result of a whistleblower lawsuit filed by Chandana Basu, who used to handle billing and collection services at Santa Clarita Surgery Center for Advanced Pain Management. Ms. Basu accused Dr. Grewal of upcoding medical services on fraudulent claims in order to collect higher reimbursements from Medicare, Medi-Cal and a federal health plan for military members and their families.

According to the lawsuit, Dr. Grewal and his associates submitted claims for neuroplasty, a surgical procedure performed by neurosurgeons to repair or restore nerve tissue, when in fact they performed neurolysis, a simpler and cheaper procedure that destroys damaged nerves through injections and radiofrequency. Dr. Grewal and his colleagues are not qualified to perform neuroplasty, notes the lawsuit.

Dr. Grewal and his group are also accused of repeatedly charging billers for 2 separate facet injections performed at the same level of the spine when the injections should have been billed as a single procedure.

Dr. Grewal could not be reached for comment.

Ms. Basu will receive $204,00 as part of the settlement, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. When reached for comment, she simply said, "He got off easy."

Daniel Cook