Poplar Bluff doctor indicted for health care fraud

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- A Poplar Bluff doctor and his wife have been indicted on federal health care fraud charges.

Indictments released Thursday by the U.S. Attorney's office charge Dr. Devendra Varma and his wife, Veena, with two felony counts each of health care fraud. The charges are in connection with his family practice in Poplar Bluff.

The indictment says Varma grossly overstated the number of Medicare and Medicaid patients he saw, and the number of prescriptions he ordered for patients that were filled at a pharmacy the couple owned by him and his wife.

Varma was reached at his home Thursday evening and said no fraud was committed.