ClickCease
Brown, LLC Secures Back-to-Back Nine-Figure Whistleblower Settlements — $950M (Raytheon) and $350M (Walgreens). Learn More... ×
Home Dimitri Dermatology Sued for Medicare and Medicaid Fraud by Whistleblowers Under the False Claims Act

Dimitri Dermatology Sued for Medicare and Medicaid Fraud by Whistleblowers Under the False Claims Act

Last reviewed and updated on: July 29, 2026 at 11:59 am

Table of Contents

All statements herein are allegations. The defendants deny liability and are presumed not liable unless and until the allegations are proven in court.

If you have information about these allegations or a similar matter, please contact our office. 

Case Overview:

This government-intervened qui tam action concerns allegations that Dimitri Dermatology and affiliated defendants billed federal and state healthcare programs for phototherapy and photochemotherapy services allegedly performed at subtherapeutic doses or intervals, and for certain acne-related treatments allegedly inconsistent with applicable medical-necessity standards. The Defendants deny the allegations and are vigorously defending the case.

Defendants:

The primary Defendant, E.M. Dimitri, D.O., operates multiple dermatology clinics across Louisiana and Mississippi through various affiliated entities. These clinics provide services through various corporate entities, including Dimitri Dermatology, Mississippi Dermatology, and others. Additional medical professionals named in the complaint include Dr. Thomas Orgeron, Dr. Joel Perdomo, and Dr. Steven Shapiro, who are alleged to have participated in or approved the fraudulent billing practices.

This case was initially brought by three individuals who had worked as providers in various offices of the Defendants. The original complaint remains part of the public court record, but it is no longer the operative pleading. The First Amended Joint Complaint filed by the United States and the State of Louisiana supersedes the original complaint and is the operative pleading in the case.

Allegations in the Original Complaint:

On July 24, 2018, the Relators filed their complaint under the federal False Claims Act (FCA) and Louisiana’s Medical Assistance Programs Integrity Law (MAPIL), alleging that under Dr. Dimitri’s direction, the defendants engaged in a range of fraudulent activities, including:

  • routinely misdiagnosing patients to justify medically unnecessary treatments;
  • falsely billing treatments and procedures that are not reimbursable by Medicare;
  • upcoding services to secure higher reimbursements;
  • dividing treatments into unnecessary multiple sessions to increase billings;
  • falsely billing for services performed by providers who were not enrolled in Medicare or Medicaid under the names of enrolled providers; and
  • diluting Botox injections beyond the manufacturer’s recommended levels, reducing the efficacy of the medical treatment while still billing at full price to Medicaid and Medicare.

Allegations in the Superseding First Amended Joint Complaint:

The U.S. government and the State of Louisiana intervened after investigating the allegations, and filed their complaint in intervention on September 25, 2024. In that First Amended Joint Complaint (which supersedes the original complaint), they name the Dimitri business entities along with Dr. Dimitri, Dr. Orgeron, and Dr. Perdomo, and allege that:

  • “Defendants engaged in a pattern and practice of billing Louisiana Medicaid, Mississippi Medicaid, Medicare, and TRICARE for phototherapy and photochemotherapy procedures that were performed at subtherapeutic doses and at subtherapeutic intervals on thousands of Louisiana and Mississippi residents,” First Amended Joint Complaint, at 2; and that
  • Defendants required acne patients to return to the office for treatments of dubious efficacy at a frequency that “fell well outside of the ‘generally accepted evidence-based medical standards’ required by the State of Louisiana, the ‘standards of acceptable medical practice’ required by the State of Mississippi, the ‘professionally recognized standards’ required by Medicare, and the ‘generally accepted norms for medical practice in the United States’ required by the TRICARE program.” Id., at 2-3 (citations omitted)..

Legal Framework:

  • False Claims Act (FCA): This federal law allows private individuals (known as whistleblowers or relators) to file lawsuits on behalf of the government for fraudulent claims made to Medicare, Medicaid, and other government programs. Violations of the FCA may result in treble damages and civil penalties.
  • Louisiana Medical Assistance Programs Integrity Law (MAPIL): Similar to the FCA, this state law holds healthcare providers accountable for submitting false claims to Louisiana Medicaid.

Procedural History and Current Status:

The case is currently in the discovery phase, following the court’s denial of the defendants’ motion to dismiss the federal and state claims. The United States, the State of Louisiana, and the relators through their private whistleblower law firm Brown, LLC continue to pursue a recovery on behalf of the taxpayers through the litigation. Trial is currently scheduled to begin on December 6, 2027.

Read the relators’ original complaint and the First Amended Joint Complaint:

Categories