Doctor from Manhasset charged with defrauding insurance companies says Queens DA

A Queens doctor from Manhasset has been charged with defrauding insurance companies out of more than $25,000 by billing them for medical services he never provided to patients, Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced Thursday.

Brown's office said Dr. Stanley-Sangwook Kim, 41, who has a medical practice in Flushing and is the director of the surgical residency program at St. John's Episcopal Hospital in Far Rockaway, was arraigned Wednesday night and released on his own recognizance. He is due back in court Dec. 10.

According to the charges against him, Kim submitted false claims totaling more than $63,000 to six health insurance companies -- Aetna, Cigna, United Healthcare, Optum Health Care (United Healthcare), Health Plus (Amerigroup) and Affinity Health Plan -- for treatments that 13 of his patients supposedly received between May 2012 and September 2013. The DA's office said because of the false claims, most of which were for incisions of rectal abscesses, Kim got $25,060 in payments from the insurance carriers.

Aetna first discovered the fraud when one of its clients complained she had been billed for a service that hadn't been performed, officials said. Aetna opened up an investigation and turned its findings over to the state Department of Financial Services Criminal Investigations Unit, the release said.

In court Wednesday, Kim was charged with fifth-, fourth- and third-degree insurance fraud; fourth- and third-degree grand larceny; petty larceny; fifth-, fourth- and third-degree criminal possession of stolen property; first-degree falsifying business records; and scheme to defraud. Brown's office said Kim could face up to 7 years in prison if convicted.

Kim's attorney, Martin Geduldig, did not immediately return a call seeking comment Thursday evening.