A Beverly Hills plastic surgeon and his son, medical practices and billing company have agreed to pay $23.9 million to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by submitting false claims to Medicare and Medicaid.

The settlement announced on April 28 resolves allegations that Dr. Joel Aronowitz, his son Daniel Aronowitz, Joel A. Aronowitz, M.D., a medical corporation, Tower Multi-Specialty Medical Group, Tower Wound Care Center of Santa Monica, Inc., Tower Outpatient Surgery Center, Inc. and Tower Medical Billing Solutions falsified the place of service for skin grafts and billed multiple times for single-use skin substitute products.

The United States Attorney’s Office contends that the settling parties manipulated the place of service code on claims for skin grafts to fraudulently maximize reimbursement from Medicare and Medicaid. The United States further contends that Aronowitz failed to properly dispose of unused portions of single-use skin graft materials and instead, used them in later procedures involving other Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, resulting in thousands of instances of double billing.

“Our investigation revealed a long-running practice to illegally maximize profits, ultimately costing public health programs millions of dollars,” United States Attorney Martin Estrada said. “The Medicare and Medicaid programs are taxpayer-funded programs, and we are committed to wiping out abuses that line the pockets of unscrupulous providers.”

In connection with the settlement, the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General negotiated the voluntary exclusion of Aronowitz and Tower Multi-Specialty Medical Group from Medicare, Medicaid and all other federal health care programs for a period of 15 years. Daniel Aronowitz is excluded for three years.