The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York on Tuesday intervened in a lawsuit against Fresenius Vascular Care, which has been accused of performing unnecessary medical procedures on dialysis patients at outpatient facilities in New York.

The False Claims Act suit alleges that the defendants billed federal programs including Medicare and Medicaid for the cost of the procedures, which were described in the intervenors’ complaint as “uncomfortable, time-consuming interventions … unjustified by clinical and other information amassed by patients’ treating physicians and dialysis clinics.”

Eastern District of New York U.S. Attorney Breon Peace. Photo: Ryland West/ALM