Fugitive arrested in $547M Medicare fraud; pregnancy complications tied to artery disease; swimming eases back pain — Morning Medical Update

Fugitive arrested in $547M Medicare fraud scheme

Khalid Satary, on the run since 2022, was captured overseas and returned to the U.S. to face charges.

Khalid Satary, 54, was returned to the United States to face charges in one of the largest health care fraud schemes the Department of Justice has brought. A 2019 indictment in the Eastern District of Louisiana alleges he used laboratories he controlled to bill Medicare more than $547 million from 2016 to 2019 for medically unnecessary genetic tests, paying kickbacks to doctors and recruiters.

Released on bond, he allegedly kept billing through Houston-area labs, then fled the country in 2022 before his July 20 capture in the Middle East, where he was carrying a fake Mexican passport. He faces charges including health care fraud, wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy.

Pregnancy complications linked to later artery disease

A study of 2 million women tied pregnancy complications to later peripheral artery disease.

Women who have complications during pregnancy may face a higher risk of peripheral artery disease later in life, according to a UTHealth Houston study in PLOS Medicine. Tracking more than 2 million Swedish women who gave birth between 1973 and 2015, researchers led by Casey Crump, M.D., Ph.D., found preterm delivery, preeclampsia, gestational diabetes and other adverse outcomes were associated with the disease, in which narrowed arteries cut blood flow to the legs and can precede stroke and heart disease. Because the study is observational, it shows association rather than cause; Crump urged blood pressure, diabetes and cholesterol screening for affected women, who 'may still have a higher risk that can emerge later in life.'

Take a dip for back pain

An eight-week swimming and education program beat education alone in a first-of-its-kind trial.

Physicians who tell patients with chronic low back pain to get in the pool now have trial evidence behind the advice. In the EduSwim randomized trial in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, an eight-week individualized swimming and education program cut disability significantly more than education alone. Macquarie University researchers randomly assigned 76 adults with pain lasting at least 12 weeks; the swimming group improved about 50% from baseline and scored roughly 30% lower on a standard disability scale. The benefit held at 26 and 52 weeks but narrowed over time, and the sample was small.