Beverly Hills Plastic Surgeons Billing Medicare for Wound Care
A $45.7M Question
Beverly Hills, California — ZIP code 90210 — is synonymous with wealth, luxury, and cosmetic surgery. So when we found three plastic surgeons and one physician assistant in Beverly Hills billing Medicare a combined $45.7M, with 83–95% of their billing in wound care rather than cosmetic procedures, it raised questions.
The Providers
| Provider | Specialty | Total Billing | Wound Care % | Drug % | Patients |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Johnson Lee | Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery | $22.5M | 89.0% | 81.4% | 3,596 |
| Som Kohanzadeh | Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery | $14.7M | 90.3% | 33.3% | 1,318 |
| Millicent Rovelo | Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery | $6.1M | 83.1% | 76.0% | 1,308 |
| Demijon Dicen | Physician Assistant | $2.3M | 95.5% | 67.1% | 386 |
| TOTAL | $45.7M | 6,608 |
The Beverly Hills Paradox
These are board-certified plastic surgeons practicing in one of the wealthiest ZIP codes in America. Their public-facing practices market cosmetic procedures: facelifts, rhinoplasty, breast augmentation, body contouring.
But their Medicare billing tells a different story. Between 83% and 95% of their Medicare payments come from wound care — skin substitute products, debridement, and related services. These are treatments for chronic wounds like diabetic ulcers and pressure sores — conditions overwhelmingly associated with elderly, low-income, and diabetic populations.
Beverly Hills (90210) has a median household income of over $100,000. Its population skews younger and healthier than the typical wound care patient demographic. The question is: where are these wound care patients coming from?
Johnson Lee: $22.5M
Johnson Lee is the highest-billing provider in this cluster. His Medicare payments totaled $22.5M in 2023, with 89% from wound care and 81.4% from drugs (primarily skin substitute products billed under Part B). He treated 3,596 Medicare patients.
For a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills, that volume of Medicare wound care billing is extraordinary. The average plastic surgeon bills Medicare approximately $200,000–$400,000 per year, mostly for reconstructive procedures. Lee's billing is 50–100x the typical plastic surgeon's wound care volume.
Som Kohanzadeh: $14.7M
Som Kohanzadeh is a board-certified plastic surgeon who markets his practice as "Beverly Hills Plastic Surgery" on his website (drsom.com), featuring cosmetic procedures including facelifts, breast augmentation, and body contouring.
But Kohanzadeh also co-founded the "Wound Institutes of America" — a wound care practice. His Medicare billing reflects this dual identity: 90.3% of his $14.7M in Medicare payments came from wound care.
Kohanzadeh was also profiled in our Three Providers investigation for his unusual billing growth trajectory — his Medicare billing grew 770x over a decade, from modest amounts to nearly $29 million when including multi-year totals.
The Bigger Picture
This Beverly Hills cluster is not an isolated finding. It fits a national pattern that the Department of Justice targeted in its June 2025 enforcement action — the largest healthcare fraud takedown in history at $14.6B.
The DOJ specifically called out schemes where providers:
- Billed for medically unnecessary skin substitute products
- Received kickbacks from product manufacturers
- Applied products to wounds that didn't require them
- Operated practices that appeared to be one specialty but billed primarily as wound care
We are not alleging that these providers engaged in any of these schemes. But the pattern — cosmetic surgeons in a wealthy ZIP code billing Medicare almost entirely for wound care products — is precisely the type of anomaly that warrants scrutiny.
⚠️ Important Disclaimer
This analysis identifies statistical anomalies — not proven fraud. The billing patterns described here are unusual and warrant further investigation, but unusual billing alone does not constitute evidence of fraud, waste, or abuse. There may be legitimate clinical explanations for these billing patterns.
Some plastic surgeons do legitimately treat chronic wounds as part of reconstructive surgery practices. Wound care is within the scope of plastic surgery training. The providers named in this article have not been charged with any crime.
All data comes from publicly available CMS Medicare Provider Utilization and Payment Data (2023). If you have information about Medicare fraud, report it to the HHS Office of Inspector General or call 1-800-HHS-TIPS (1-800-447-8477).
Methodology
We analyzed CMS Medicare Provider Utilization and Payment Data (2023), filtering for providers in Beverly Hills with wound care billing exceeding 50% of total payments. Wound care share is calculated from Q4xxx skin substitute codes, debridement codes, and related wound management services as a percentage of total Medicare payments.
All data is publicly available from data.cms.gov.
Report Medicare Fraud
If you have information about potential Medicare fraud, waste, or abuse:
- HHS-OIG Hotline: 1-800-HHS-TIPS (1-800-447-8477)
- Online: oig.hhs.gov/fraud/report-fraud
- False Claims Act: Whistleblowers may be eligible for 15-30% of recovered funds.
Related Investigations
⚠️ Important Context
All data on this page comes from publicly available CMS Medicare payment records. Unusual billing patterns may reflect legitimate medical practices (such as high-volume drug administration where each unit is counted as a separate service), data reporting differences, or group practice billing. Inclusion on this page does not constitute an accusation of fraud or wrongdoing. Only law enforcement and regulatory agencies can determine whether billing patterns represent fraud. Providers flagged by our statistical model have billing patterns similar to previously convicted providers, but many may have perfectly legitimate explanations.