Indian American man pays more than $700K for under-reporting income

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Harshad Patel, the Indian American owner of AP Surgery Center, LLC and AP Diagnostics Imaging, Inc., has repaid $502,600 to the Department of Health, and an additional $215,400 to two realtors after he allegedly defrauded the State’s Charity Care Fund by under-reporting annual gross receipts from his businesses, according to a patch.com report.

Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said that Patel under-reported the surgical center’s income so he could get subsidies from the state meant for those who cannot afford to pay

Over six years, Patel allegedly evaded more than $1 million in Charity Care Fund assessments by under-reporting his income.

“This is an important settlement for New Jersey residents — not only because of the dollars involved, but because of the message it sends that we take seriously our responsibility to root out false claims activity and protect the State’s charitable health care assets,” said Attorney General Grewal.

“Through our own efforts and in collaboration with our government and private partners, we are committed to ensuring that charity health care funding goes to help the people it was meant to help, and that unscrupulous health care service providers who cheat the fund are held accountable,” he added.

“New Jersey’s charity care program provides $252 million in subsidies to hospitals for the care they provide our most vulnerable residents. Every dollar collected through assessments on health care facilities to support this program is valuable. The Department of Health applauds the hard work of the Attorney General’s Office in holding accountable facilities that attempt to mislead the state,” Health Commissioner Dr. Shereef Elnahal said in a statement.