Sources: Feds raid Zwanger-Pesiri Radiology, seize records in Medicare probe
A federal agent removes evidence Tuesday, March 11, 2014, from the Zwanger-Pesiri headquarters on Sunrise Highway in Lindenhurst. The agents seized records of the radiological company with 12 branches on Long Island. Credit: James Carbone
Federal agents Tuesday raided the corporate headquarters of Zwanger-Pesiri Radiology in Lindenhurst, seizing the records of the business that operates 12 medical offices on Long Island, according to sources.
The agents from the Department of Health and Human Services' Inspector General's office and the FBI are working with prosecutors from the Eastern District in investigating allegations that the company has engaged in a multimillion-dollar fraud by vastly overbilling the federal Medicare program for its services, which include X-rays, MRIs and CT scans, the sources said.
Zwanger-Pesiri employs dozens of radiologists, according to its website, and there is no suggestion that any of the medical services that the offices provided were performed negligently, the sources said.
Andrew Garbarino, of Ruskin Moscou Faltischek in Uniondale, an attorney for the company, declined to comment.
Robert Nardoza, a spokesman for federal prosecutors in the Eastern District, also declined to comment.
In addition to Lindenhurst, the company also has offices in Elmont, Hicksville, Merrick, Massapequa, Plainview, West Islip, Smithtown, Stony Brook, East Setauket, Patchogue and Medford, according to its website.
Zwanger-Pesiri is headed by a husband-and-wife team of doctors, Steven Mendelsohn and Susan Zwanger-Mendelsohn, the site says.
The business was founded in 1958 by Zwanger-Mendelsohn's father, Jerome Zwanger, and another doctor, E.J. Pesiri. Pesiri retired in 2001 and the elder Zwanger in 2008, the site says.
