Former Temple assistant dean accused of insurance fraud

A former assistant dean of the Temple University School of Medicine was charged by a federal grand jury yesterday with bilking Medicare and eight private health insurers of more than $1.5 million.

Authorities said Joseph Kubacki, 61, now living in Destin, Fla., submitted thousands of false claims for services rendered to patients totaling more than $3 million from July 2002 to October 2007.

Kubacki, who was charged with 72 counts each of health-care fraud and of making false statements, did not personally see or evaluate the patients, the indictment said.

Prosecutors said Kubacki, the assistant dean for medical affairs and chairman of the Ophthalmology Department, directed staffers in his department to bring charts of patients seen by other doctors so he could make notations in the charts that he had seen and treated them.

Kubacki then allegedly signed the charts and filled out fee slips for services that he falsely claimed he had provided to patients at Temple.

Most of the claims for which Kubacki was paid were for $290 to $410 each, the indictment said.

In some cases, Kubacki was outside Pennsylvania - in places such as Las Vegas; Sarasota, Fla., and Indian Wells, Calif. - when he claimed to have seen patients at Temple, prosecutors said.

The indictment suggested that Kubacki's alleged crimes may have been motivated by a desire to appear more productive than he was as a practicing physician in the Ophthalmology Department, and thus retain his position as chairman and boost his annual compensation.