The Department of Justice announced today criminal charges against 138 defendants, including 42 doctors, nurses, and other licensed medical professionals, in 31 federal districts across the United States for their alleged participation in various health care fraud schemes that resulted in approximately $1.4 billion in suspected losses. The charges target approximately $1.1 billion in fraud committed using telemedicine, $29 million…
Three telemarking company owners were charged for their alleged participation in a $46 million health care fraud, kickback, and money laundering scheme involving the referral of medically unnecessary cancer genetic tests to labs in exchange for kickbacks. According to the indictment, the defendants allegedly participated in a scheme to operate a telemarketing campaign targeting Medicare beneficiaries in an effort to…
A total of 30 defendants have been charged with offenses relating to their alleged participation in various schemes to defraud Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance. Those charged include physicians as well as other medical and business professionals. The charges announced involve schemes alleged to have billed Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance companies for medically unnecessary services, such as home health, prescriptions…
A wealthy Miami Beach health care executive, who owned and operated a network of more than 30 nursing homes and assisted living facilities in South Florida, was sentenced last week to 20 years in prison for orchestrating what prosecutors described a massive $1 billion Medicare fraud scheme. The indictment charged the owner of the facilities, along with a hospital administrator and a physician’s assistant…
The 4th District Court of Appeal ruled on Wednesday August 7, 2019 that defendants won’t be able to beat criminal charges of patient brokering related to the opioid epidemic in Palm Beach County by claiming they got bad advice from their attorneys. “As a matter of first impression, we hold that ‘advice of counsel’ is not a defense to the…
Alexander Ros Lazo, 54, of Homestead, an owner and operator of T.L.C. Health Services Inc., a home health agency, pleaded guilty this week to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud before U.S. District Judge Jose E. Martinez of the Southern District of Florida. Misleidy Ibarra, 46, also of Homestead, a licensed massage therapist, pleaded guilty before Judge…
In what Justice Department officials — along with South Florida’s U.S. attorney, the FBI, and Health and Human Services agents — have described as the nation’s biggest Medicare fraud case, federal prosecutors have lost a major battle as a judge threw out key evidence after finding “misconduct” by the Justice Department’s investigative team. Miami Beach businessman Philip Esformes was charged…
As previously blogged on this site, on June 28, 2018 the Department of Justice announced what was called “the largest health-care fraud takedown in history,” with more than 1,000 law enforcement officers charging 601 people — including 76 doctors, 23 pharmacists, 19 nurses — with more than $2 billion in fraud. The takedown included 124 defendants in South Florida —…
Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex M. Azar III, announced today the largest ever health care fraud enforcement action involving 601 charged defendants across 58 federal districts, including 165 doctors, nurses and other licensed medical professionals, for their alleged participation in health care fraud schemes involving more than $2 billion in false…
In a 2015 article, the NY Post claims that South Florida has become the nation’s “organized fraud capital,” with identity theft tax fraud schemes leading the way. Identity theft, the fastest-growing crime in South Florida, is being used to gather names and Social Security numbers in order to file fraudulent tax returns and collect a refund check. The number of false federal income…