Charges dismissed after area doctor charged with fraud dies

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- A federal judge dismissed the health care fraud charges pending against a Poplar Bluff doctor who died earlier this month.

U.S. District Judge Charles Shaw granted a motion Thursday dismissing the indictment/counts against Dr. Devendra K. Varma. The motion had been filed the day before by the U.S. attorney's office in St. Louis.

Varma's death certificate indicates he died at 11:45 a.m. Oct. 6 at his Miller Road residence, according to Butler County Coroner Jim Akers.

Varma, who was under hospice care at the time of death at age 78, died from pulmonary fibrosis, Akers said.

"Ultimately what happens is the fibers in the lungs become hardened and don't expand like they should," he said. "The lungs don't exchange air."

The secondary cause of death, Akers said, was heart disease.

Cotrell Funeral Service picked up Varma's body, which went to "direct cremation," Akers said. There was no service held, he said.

Varma and his wife, Winifred (Veena) Varma, were indicted in July 2009 by a federal grand jury in St. Louis on two counts of health care fraud.

According to a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, Veena Varma's case now is set for trial April 11 in St. Louis.

Initially, Dr. Varma had been arrested June 24 on a federal complaint charging him with health care fraud. That was the same day local, state and federal authorities served a federal search warrant on his medical clinic.

At that time, Dr. Varma was a family practice physician licensed to practice medicine by the State of Missouri. Haven Hills Medical Clinic, 1611 Lurlyn Road, was owned by the Varmas and had its own laboratory and pharmacy on site.

Central Pharmacy was registered with the Missouri Board of Pharmacy and the owner of the permit was Veena Varma. Central Pharmacy also was registered with the Missouri Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as a retail pharmacy.

Dr. Varma was accused of falsely reporting in patient medical records that he examined and evaluated 92 Medicare and Medicaid patients on Jan. 9, 2007, and 75 Medicare and Medicaid patients on Jan. 2, 2009.

He allegedly falsely represented the amount of time he spent examining and evaluating patients and submitted fraudulent statements to Medicare and Medicaid for non-rendered services.

Since the indictments were handed down, the Varmas' cases have been set for trial and continued several times with their trial most recently set for Dec. 6.