After reportedly allowing an unlicensed medical assistant to inject patients with unnecessary pain injections that were billed to Medicare as more expensive nerve blocks, 
Dr. Robert Ritchea of Phenix City, Ala., faces federal fines of more than $2.2 million. A federal complaint accuses Ritchea of submitting over 4,300 false claims to Medicare, with penalties ranging from $5,500 to $11,000 for each claim.
"This lawsuit shows what happens when a doctor puts money before the health and safety of his patients," Sally Quillian Yates, who is U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, said in a statement.
Since 2009, the Justice Department has recovered about $3 billion nationwide in cases related to the False Claims Act.
The Alabama State Board of Medical Examiners does not permit medical assistants to perform the pain injection procedures Ritchea billed for, according to the Department of Justice press release. Ritchea told both the Alabama State Board of Medical Examiners and the Georgia Composite State Board of Medical Examiners that the procedures were not medically necessary and that they were over-prescribed and over-utilized.
To learn more:
- read the Department of Justice press release
- here's the 80-page civil complaint
- check out the WTVM article
- here's the Becker's Hospital Review piece
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