The Department of Justice announced a four million dollar settlement to resolve False Claims Act allegations of unnecessary vein restoration procedures against CVR Management, LLC, the Center for Vein Restoration (collectively hereinafter, “CVR”), the Center for Vascular Medicine, LLC (“CVM”) and Sanjiv Lakhanpal, MD, FACS. CVR and CVM have vein treatment offices in multiple states and in the District of Columbia, with sixteen locations in Maryland.
JGL partners, Jay P. Holland and Veronica Nannis, represented the whistleblower throughout this more than decade-long process. JGL’s client, a former employee of CVR, filed the complaint under seal in November 2015 under the whistleblower process (qui tam) of the False Claims Act. The complaint alleged that over the course of many years CVR engaged in a pattern of up-coding and false billing to the Medicare, Medicaid and TRICARE federal health insurance programs for performing unnecessary and invasive vein repair procedures instead of first utilizing more conservative treatments as required by law. These practices, it was alleged, caused patients to undergo medically unnecessary procedures, putting patients at risk and defrauding federal and state programs of millions of dollars in taxpayer money.
The procedures were intended to treat chronic venous insufficiency, sometimes called venous reflux, which refers to the improper functioning of the vein valves where blood pools in the veins, weakening them and creating varicose veins, cramping, swelling, or skin discoloration on the affected leg and sometimes ulcers or skin necrosis on the legs. Neither Medicare, Medicaid, nor TRICARE cover the treatment of varicose veins for cosmetic reasons alone. Treatment for chronic venous insufficiency must be accompanied by certain other conditions and only after the patient has undergone a specified period of alternative, more conservative treatment options that prove unsuccessful. Instead, the whistleblower complaint alleged that the defendants routinely performed more complex, expensive and invasive procedures without trying safer alternatives, and which were not clinically indicated or medically unnecessary.
JGL’s client sought to stop this practice by bravely coming forward to the Department of Justice. Those efforts have now successfully met that goal by protecting patients from these unnecessary and invasive vein procedures, and by stopping the fraudulent billing of government insurance programs. The settlement was featured in a Law360 article “Vein Restoration Co. Will Pay $4M To End False Claims Suit,” which was published on March 20, 2026.
JGL’s Jay Holland and Veronica Nannis are honored to represent the whistleblower in this case. They are also thankful for the assistance of co-counsel Jay Miller at The Angelos Law Firm, and for the comprehensive investigation performed by the experienced government attorneys dedicated to this case, and particularly Assistant United States Attorney Tarra Deshields from the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland.
“The government’s commitment to investigating and wholeheartedly pursuing this case underscores its keen desire to protect patients, root out fraud and protect taxpayer dollars,” said Jay.
Greenbelt, Maryland based Joseph, Greenwald & Laake filed the lawsuit in November 2015. Case Number PX-15-3591.
