Bolingbrook Doctor Dispensed OxyContin to Undercover Agent: Feds

A doctor from Bolingbrook is accused of illegally dispensing oxycodone to an undercover agent and then fraudulently billing Medicare, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.

Sathish Narayanappa Babu, 47, was arrested on federal charges Thursday after agents executed search warrants at his Bolingbrook home and the Darien office for his company, Anik Life Sciences Medical Corp, 8348 Lemont Road.

A complaint filed in U.S. District Court claims that between November 2012 and December 2013, Babu issued five prescriptions, each for 60 doses of 80mg strength OxyContin, to a patient who was actually an undercover agent. Babu allegedly dispensed the drugs despite never having seen or examined the patient.

Babu is also accused of permitting unlicensed personnel from his company to issue prescriptions to the same patient. During the same period, Babu also allegedly submitted false claims to Medicare for the patient for services that were never provided.

According to complaint, the undercover agent posed as a healthy individual covered by Medicare and seeking a doctor's service to obtain prescription medication, including oxycodone.

"The agent further purported to have shoulder pain from a previous injury and to be on disability," according to the U.S. Attorney's office. "On approximately 10 occasions, representatives from Anik Life Sciences, none of whom were licensed as physicians, nurses, or other medical professionals in Illinois, visited the undercover agent in his purported apartment."

Babu is accused of having unlicensed personnel from Anik Life Sciences provide medical care — including prescriptions issued under Babu’s name and DEA registration number for controlled substances ― to the undercover agent and then billed Medicare for that purported care. 

The complaint claims that the 300 OxyContin pills prescribed by Babu for the undercover agent were paid for largely by Medicare.

The Anik Life Sciences website bills Babu bills as a cardiothoracic surgeon trained in India, the United Kingdom and the U.S., and says he is trained and certified in cosmetic surgery. The company was located in Arlington Heights before moving to Darien last year, according to the Department of Justice.

No one answered at any of the seven telephone numbers listed on Anik Life Sciences' website on Friday. Calls to two of the listed numbers went to an automated advertisement for magicJack.

Agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General and the FBI executed federal search and seizure warrants at Babu’s Bolingbrook home and Darien office. They also seized more than $100,000 from Anik’s bank accounts.

Babu is charged with one count each of conspiracy to illegally dispense a controlled substance and health care fraud in a criminal complaint. 

He was released Thursday on $100,000 bond. As a condition of his bond, U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheila Finnegan prohibited Babu from writing any prescriptions or submitting any claims to Medicare.

Conspiracy to illegally dispense oxycodone carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine, and health care fraud carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, and restitution is mandatory. 

Babu is due back in federal court on Tuesday, Feb. 25.