A doctor who operates a Shelby Township-based chain of vein and cosmetic centers has been accused a second time by the federal government of falsely billing for various vein-treatment services.

Dr. Charles Mok, 61, owner of Allure Medical Spa, has been charged with six counts of health-care fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud on allegations that his employees engaged in and billed for “medically unnecessary procedures,” … “billed for procedures that were not performed and billed for procedures more extensive than were performed,” known as “upcoding,” says the 13-page grand-jury indictment filed March 6 in U.S. District Court in Detroit.

The charges are punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

A 2020 indictment of Mok on accusations of vein and COVID-19 treatment was dismissed in March 2023 upon request by U.S. Attorneys, who said at the time charges would be refiled.

The new indictment excludes allegations about COVID-19 treatments.

The six incidents resulted in Mok and his company illicitly collecting $20,600, according to the indictment.

The federal government says that the nearly $7 million it seized from Mok in April 2020 in connection with the prior indictment and subsequently released will still be subject to forfeiture if Mok is convicted on all counts.

The indictment alleges that Mok’s clinics promised a “free ‘screening’ examination” to patients but billed Medicare Part B for a “complete examination.”

“Instead of creating an individualized medical record of the examination, boilerplate findings were used,” the indictment reads. “Instead of trying conservative non-interventional treatments initially, patients were immediately placed on a standardized schedule of surgical treatments, typically ablation.

“This was without regard to whether the patient was likely to medically benefit from the procedures. The treatment schedule did not consider the patient’s response to the treatment, with additional treatments being scheduled and performed before the results of the first treatment could be observed.”

The indictment says the company’s “core business model” was to bill for “repeated injections of Varithena, a noncompounded foam, into single or multiple ‘incompetent truncal veins.’”

“Closing truncal veins is an accepted treatment for venous insufficiency in some cases,” it goes on to say. “But once a major vein is closed, there is no medical reason to close it again, except in the rare instance where the first procedure does not actually close the vein.”

Injecting Varithena to close nontruncal veins was falsely billed as incompetent truncal veins, it says. Injecting Varithena into a single vein but billing it as multiple “because some of the foam may travel into the non-truncal veins is a false billing,” according to the grand jury.

Regarding the conspiracy allegation, the indictment says Mok and co-conspirators enriched themselves by filing “false and fraudulent insurance claims.”

“In addition to using his influence as an employer, at times Mok induced his employees to join in his conspiracy and participate in the scheme to defraud by providing ‘bonus payments’ on days when a particularly high number of patients were processed or for meeting other volume-based goals,” the indictment alleges.

Also, patients at times were “induced” to participate in the conspiracy by waiving “co-pays,” which constituted a “kickback,” says the indictment.

An attorney who represented Mok in the 2020 case did not return a call.

In addition to the Shelby Township location, Allure has 25 clinics in eight states, including at least five others in Michigan and sites in North Carolina, South Carolina and Kentucky, the indictment says.

Allure’s web site says it also has locations in Warren, Clarkston, Southgate, Livonia and Ann Arbor. It says it has four branches each in North and South Carolina.

An Allure clinic on 12 Mile Road in Roseville closed shortly after the original indictment was brought.

The web site says Mok received his doctorate degree from Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine, Chicago, in 1989, and completed his residency at what was known as Mount Clemens General Hospital and is now McLaren Macomb.

Mok, who resided in Washington Township when he was indicted in 2020, founded Allure in 2003 and has authored a book.

“His professionalism and personal attention to detail have contributed to the success of one of the first medical spas in Michigan,” the site says.

The site says he is an assistant clinical professor of internal medicine at Michigan State University in East Lansing and assistant clinical professor of emergency medicine at Des Moines University of Health Science — Assistant Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine.

He has board certifications from the American Society of Cosmetic Breast Surgery, American Board of Phlebology, and the American Board of Osteopathic Emergency Medicine, according to the site.