A Buckhead doctor is in hot water with the federal government for allegedly bilking Medicare and the IRS of roughly $16 million dollars over five years.
The U.S. Department of Justice in March indicted Dr. Lawrence Eppelbaum, claiming that he charged the federal health care program for unnecessary treatments.
Authorities accused Eppelbaum of using a bogus non-profit to provide handsome travel kickbacks to his patients, funnel money through an area Jewish day school to disguise his funding, and file false charitable deductions to avoid paying federal taxes.
In an interview Tuesday with Channel 2 Action News, Eppelbaum, 52, said he did nothing wrong and will prove his innocence in federal court. "I will win 100 percent," he said.
But Marlon Wilbanks, an attorney for one of Eppelbaum’s patients who sued the doctor on behalf of “every American taxpayer,” said the Atlanta doctor violated a federal laws that prohibits health care providers from luring Medicare patients for treatment.
“The problem is Medicare would not have paid one penny if they would have known that these people were being induced to come to Atlanta for this treatment with free meals, travel and entertainment,” Wilbanks told Channel 2.
Wilbanks said Eppelbaum preyed on Russian-speaking people living in the U.S. with back pain, enticing hundreds of them – even paying for their trips – to Atlanta for treatment and to hot springs in North Carolina or Florida.
“They don’t speak English, they’re totally responding to this fairy tale trip that they’re being offered to come down, and they’re being offered all this stuff for free,” Wilbanks said.
Reginael McDaniel, special agent in charge of the Atlanta Region IRS criminal investigations, said Eppelbaum cheated U.S. taxpayers.
“Our system of health care is founded on the trust of the public in its health care professionals and the outstanding services they provide,” McDaniel said at Eppelbaum’s arraignment. “The illegal activity alleged in this indictment, including tax evasion and abuse of charitable organizations, harms all Americans.”
According to the 41-page indictment obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Eppelbaum runs the Atlanta Institute of Medicine and Rehabilitation and the Pain Clinic of AIMR in Atlanta.
Around 2004, he allegedly set up a phony charity called the Back Pain Fund, which he used to pay for Medicare patients to travel to Atlanta for treatment, and for their four-day trips to various hot springs.
“That’s part of the treatment,” Eppelbaum said Tuesday when asked about the hot springs trips.
Wilbanks said that Eppelbaum sought out Russian immigrants, promising his services and lavish trips for free to Medicare recipients. Wilbanks’ clients, who sued Eppelbaum, are a Russian couple from Maryland.
The indictment goes on to allege that Eppelbaum was the primary donor to the Back Pain Fund, and entered into an arrangement with the Tora Jewish Day School in Atlanta, having the parents pay their children’s tuition to the Back Pain Fund as a “donation.”
He would, in turn, “donate” the full amount of the tuition to the school, plus 25 percent.
A representative for Tora told Channel 2 on Tuesday that no one knowingly participated in any wrongdoing in the matter, and the school is cooperating with federal investigators.
The court accused Eppelbaum of entering into similar agreements with other organizations, and even invited patients to make their co-payments to the Back Pain Fund to receive a charitable contribution receipt.
From 2004 to 2009, he billed Medicare in this fashion, court documents allege. And from 2006 to 2008, Eppelbaum is accused of writing off as charitable contributions all the payments he made to the Back Pain Fund, Tora and other business partners -- to the tune of about $1 million -- despite profiting from the dealings.
Wilbanks repeated the IRS assessment that American taxpayers stood to lose the most.
“The victim is the United States taxpayer,” Wilbanks said. “This is a period of time when Medicaid is going broke, and for something this blatant and particularly on a segment of the population that is very gullible.”
But when asked why he was indicted, Eppelbaum insisted he was the victim.
“I don’t have any idea,” he said. “(It’s) because we’re a successful practice, and I’m a successful rich guy.”
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