Indian-origin gynecologist Sanjeev Kumar sentenced to 20 years in prison in Tennessee for using adulterated equipment to perform 15,000 biopsies, lawyers say no punishment is enough
Indian-origin gynecologist Sanjeev Kumar has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for medical device adulteration and health fraud. U.S. Attorney D Michael Dunavant said no punishment would be enough for what Dr. Kumar, the Tennessee physician, had done over the years, but a 20-year sentence would send a strong message. In January, Dr. Kumar was found guilty of 18 counts of medical device adulteration, 16 counts of medical device misbranding and six counts of health care fraud.Dr Kumar used the same hysteroscope on several women’s vaginasKumar, a Mayo-trained gynecological oncologist who runs the Poplar Avenue Clinic, a women’s health clinic in Memphis, Tenn., used the same hysteroscope on several women.“Hysteroscopic biopsy is an in-office procedure in which a hysteroscope is inserted into the vagina, through the cervix, and into the uterus. A grabber or tube is then inserted into the hysteroscope to collect a sample of the lining of the uterus. This procedure is used to diagnose endometrial cancer. The FDA has approved several disposable hysteroscopes and graspers, as well as reusable hysteroscopes to perform these procedures. Disposable equipment can be used only once and then discarded. In order to properly disinfect equipment approved for reprocessing, Kumar must strictly follow the manufacturer’s instructions,” the Justice Department document states.“Kumar routinely failed to perform important reprocessing steps on reusable devices between patient uses, thereby jeopardizing patient safety. Single-use devices, even when properly reprocessed, are required to be labeled as such, and Kumar failed to label them. Between September 2019 and April 2024, Kumar used adulterated medical devices during more than 15,000 hysteroscopies and biopsies on Medicare and Medicaid patients,” it said.But while he wasn’t using the new hysteroscopies, he continued to bill for them. Court documents state: “Between September 2019 and April 2024, Kumar billed more than $41 million for hysteroscopic biopsies. He received more than $4.8 million from Medicare and Medicaid alone for this procedure. This amount does not include any hysteroscopic biopsies performed on patients with private health insurance.”“This defendant used his medical license to target vulnerable women seeking treatment in extremely personal and intimate ways,” Dunavant said. “He caused serious physical and mental harm to his victim patients out of greed and disregard for obvious medical risks. No punishment will be enough to deliver justice in this horrific case, but we hope that this 20-year sentence will send a strong message of deterrence while holding Kumar accountable for his crimes.”During the trial, Dr. Kumar defended his actions and said he disinfected the equipment but the government didn’t like the way he cleaned it, even though the process was approved by the CDC. Many other doctors also used the same disinfection method, the defense said, adding that the gas disinfection method cannot be done in the doctor’s office and Dr Kumar used a different high-level disinfection method.
