The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced on September 18 that cardiologist Klaus Peter Rentrop and his practice, Gramercy Cardiac Diagnostic Services, P.C., agreed to pay $6.5 million to settle allegations that they violated the federal Anti-Kickback Statute and Stark Law. Rentrop admitted to paying physicians millions of dollars in inflated office space rental payments and referral fees to induce them to refer their patients to Rentrop and Gramercy Cardiac for diagnostic tests and procedures.

The scheme ran from 2010 to 2021 and included tests and services provided to tens of thousands of Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. Of the total settlement, about $4.5 million will be paid to the federal government and about $2 million to New York’s Medicaid program.

In an online profile, Rentrop claimed to have made “groundbreaking contributions to the understanding and treatment of coronary artery disease.” The 82-year-old physician has now been indefinitely barred from working for any entity that bills federal healthcare programs. He also agreed to relinquish his ownership in Gramercy Cardiac and to pay to the federal government part of the proceeds from the sale of his interest.