Chesapeake Regional Medical Center Lawsuit and Federal Indictment

The lawsuit against Chesapeake Regional Medical Center is a civil action brought by more than 900 former patients of Dr. Javaid Perwaiz, a longtime obstetrician-gynecologist at the Chesapeake, Virginia hospital who is now serving a 59-year federal prison sentence for performing medically unnecessary surgeries. Each plaintiff seeks $10 million in damages, arguing that the hospital credentialed and re-credentialed Perwaiz for more than three decades despite repeated warnings about his conduct because his procedures were highly profitable. A separate federal criminal indictment against the hospital itself is proceeding at the same time.

Who Dr. Perwaiz Was and What He Did

Perwaiz held privileges at Chesapeake Regional from 1984 until his arrest in 2019. A federal jury convicted him in November 2020 on 52 counts of healthcare fraud and false statements, and he was sentenced in May 2021 to 59 years in federal prison. Roughly 38 of those 52 convictions involved procedures performed at Chesapeake Regional.¹

An FBI review of his billing found that 40 percent of his Medicaid patients underwent surgery and 42 percent of those had multiple procedures. Over roughly a decade ending in 2019, he billed more than $20 million in fraudulent claims to Medicaid, Medicare, TRICARE, and private insurers.²

His methods, according to the Justice Department, included telling women they had or were at risk of cancer to justify irreversible hysterectomies, falsifying pregnant patients’ due dates so he could induce early for scheduling convenience, billing for diagnostic procedures he never performed, and sterilizing Medicaid patients without observing the mandatory 30-day waiting period by backdating consent forms.³

The harm was permanent for many patients. Some testified they lost the ability to have children. One woman who had been trying to conceive learned that Perwaiz had burned her fallopian tubes “down to nubs” without her knowledge or consent.⁴ More than 500 former patients contacted the FBI tip line after his arrest.²

What the Civil Lawsuit Claims

More than 500 former patients filed suit against Chesapeake Regional, current CEO Reese Jackson, and former CEO Peter Bastone in Chesapeake Circuit Court in December 2025. The complaint alleges negligent hiring and retention, gross negligence, reckless disregard, vicarious liability, and wanton and willful disregard.⁵ Each plaintiff seeks $10 million in damages.

By March 2026, the plaintiff group had grown to 907 after 123 additional claimants joined.⁶ The plaintiffs are represented by Victoria Wickman of the Law Office of Victoria Wickman and Anthony DiPietro of The DiPietro Law Firm, who partnered for this litigation.⁷

DiPietro framed the case as targeting the institution rather than the doctor alone: “This is about looking at the entire crop, the institution that knew about this abuse, that knew about this fraud, that participated in it and covered it up.”⁸

The Hospital’s Response

Chesapeake Regional has maintained that Perwaiz was never a hospital employee and that his conduct occurred “without the knowledge of the organization.” The plaintiffs’ attorneys called that position “misleading” and “astounding,” contending that granting a physician credentials and operating-room access is itself an institutional responsibility regardless of formal employment status.⁸

Former CEO Peter Bastone, who led the hospital from 2013 to 2016, has said through reporting by The New York Times that he was “unaware of any misconduct by Perwaiz and never heard complaints about his work” during his tenure.⁵

What the Hospital Allegedly Knew

The plaintiffs’ central factual claim is that Chesapeake Regional had warnings about Perwaiz from the beginning and ignored them because he made money for the institution.

When Perwaiz applied for privileges in 1983, Maryview Hospital in Portsmouth notified Chesapeake Regional’s president that it had terminated him for performing unnecessary gynecological surgeries, including irreversible hysterectomies on young women. Chesapeake Regional’s own Department of Surgery declared him “unacceptable for appointment.” He was granted privileges in April 1984 anyway.⁹

In 1996, Perwaiz pleaded guilty to two counts of federal tax evasion, and the Virginia Board of Medicine revoked his license. It was later reinstated with conditions. During those proceedings, a local OB-GYN who also held privileges at Chesapeake Regional testified that roughly two-thirds of Perwaiz’s surgeries were medically unnecessary. The hospital reprimanded the doctor who gave that testimony, calling his statements “harmful to the Hospital’s best interests,” while its president submitted a letter supporting Perwaiz’s reinstatement that included a “physician profitability” analysis of his cases.¹⁰

Warnings continued. The same local OB-GYN wrote to hospital leadership in 1997. Between 2008 and 2009, the neonatology group raised concerns about Perwaiz inducing labor and performing C-sections without medical justification. In 2015, a nurse manager wrote to the chief medical officer reporting that Perwaiz and others were scheduling early deliveries with false or missing documentation.⁵

Between 2014 and 2019, according to the federal indictment, hospital employees in finance, patient access, and care management repeatedly alerted executives that Perwaiz was improperly classifying surgeries designated as “inpatient only” as outpatient procedures to dodge billing oversight. One director of care management escalated the issue “to the VP level” in 2017; others reported they were “stuck” until “administration changes rules.” A 2019 review of Medicaid files found that roughly 64 percent of Perwaiz’s obstetric flowsheets appeared to have been altered.¹⁰ Independent analyses by the insurers Anthem and Optima concluded that about 80 percent of Perwaiz’s surgeries between 2015 and 2019 were medically unnecessary.⁹

The hospital re-credentialed Perwaiz roughly every two years from 1984 through June 2019. His credentialing files contained information about the Maryview termination, the felony conviction, and the malpractice lawsuits. By around 2016, internal metrics identified him as a “top ten” financial performer for the hospital.⁵

The Parallel Federal Indictment

On January 8, 2025, a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia returned a two-count indictment against Chesapeake Regional Medical Center itself, charging conspiracy to defraud the United States and healthcare fraud. The government alleges the hospital collected roughly $18.5 million in insurance reimbursements for Perwaiz’s procedures between 2010 and 2019.¹

The hospital pleaded not guilty on January 28, 2025 and moved to dismiss, arguing sovereign immunity as an arm of the Commonwealth of Virginia, that a municipal entity cannot form criminal intent, and that the indictment named the wrong legal entity. On December 23, 2025, the court rejected all three arguments and let the case proceed.¹¹ The hospital publicly called the indictment “excessive overreach.”¹² The case remains pending before Judge Elizabeth W. Hanes with no publicly announced trial date.¹³

The civil suit and the criminal indictment are separate matters. The criminal case is brought by federal prosecutors and could result in fines and forfeiture; the civil suit is brought by former patients seeking money damages. Neither depends on the other’s outcome.

Where Things Stand

Reese Jackson’s tenure as president and CEO ended on May 30, 2026. The Chesapeake Hospital Authority Board announced the departure without giving a reason, saying only that “Mr. Jackson is thanked for his service.” He is one of five current and former hospital presidents named as defendants in the civil suit.¹⁴ Amber Egyud, previously the hospital’s chief operating officer and chief nursing officer, was named interim CEO effective immediately.¹⁵

The civil lawsuit continues to grow. If you were a patient of Dr. Perwaiz and want to know whether you can still be added to the case, the plaintiffs’ attorneys of record are Victoria Wickman and Anthony DiPietro.

1
Department of Justice. United States v. Chesapeake Regional Medical Center, Crim. No. 2:25-cr-1
2
FBI. Doctor Sentenced for Performing Unnecessary Surgeries
3
Department of Justice. United States v. Javaid Perwaiz
4
Washington Post. An OB-GYN Mutilated Women With Unnecessary Hysterectomies, Tube Ties, Cleanouts, Feds Say
5
Virginia Business. 500 Sue Chesapeake Regional, Allege Negligence, Unnecessary Surgeries
6
WAVY. Lawsuit Against Chesapeake Regional Medical Center Grows to 907 Plaintiffs
7
Wickman Med Law. Javaid Perwaiz
8
WAVY. Attorneys for Plaintiffs Call CRMC’s Response to Lawsuit Astounding
9
Department of Justice. Chesapeake Hospital Indicted for Healthcare Fraud Involving Unnecessary Surgical Procedures
10
NPR (Indictment PDF). United States v. Chesapeake Regional Medical Center, Indictment
11
FindLaw. United States v. Chesapeake Regional Medical Center
12
Virginia Business. Chesapeake Regional Healthcare CEO Suddenly Departs Role
13
CourtListener. United States v. Chesapeake Regional Medical Center, Docket
14
WTKR. Reese Jackson Departs Chesapeake Regional Healthcare After 10 Years; Amber Egyud Named Interim CEO
15
WAVY. Chesapeake Regional Healthcare Appoints Interim CEO Amid Legal Turmoil