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Provider Fraud

This archive displays posts tagged as relevant to fraud by healthcare providers. You may also be interested in our pages:

Page 45 of 50

May 12, 2015

Alexander Lara,  an owner of Miami home health care company Longcare Home Health Corporation was sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay $13,771,528.94 in restitution and to forfeit $13,771,528.94 for his leading role in a $13 million Medicare fraud scheme that involved paying kickbacks and bribes to patient recruiters, Medicare beneficiaries and others in South Florida doctors’ offices and medical clinics.  Lara admitted his company fraudulently billed the Medicare program for expensive physical therapy and home health care services that were not medically necessary or not provided at all.  DOJ

April 30, 2015

Miami-area doctor Barry Kaplowitz was sentenced to 60 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $2.9 million in restitution for his role in a $5.5 million Medicare fraud scheme involving fraudulent billings by Hollywood Pavilion, a psychiatric hospital in Hollywood, Florida.  According to evidence, Kaplowitz signed fraudulent medical records in order to make it appear that the hospital’s patients qualified for and received intensive outpatient services, even though they did not.  DOJ

April 23, 2015

Louisiana doctor Winston Murray pleaded guilty to federal health care fraud charges, admitting (i) he wrote home health care referrals for Medicare beneficiaries he knew were not confined to their homes, and (ii) his referrals were used by home health companies Interlink Health Care Services Inc. and Lakeland Health Care Services Inc., among others, to fraudulently bill Medicare for home health services not medically needed or not provided.  From 2007 through 2014, these companies and other companies involved in this scheme submitted more than $56 million in claims to Medicare, a vast majority of which were fraudulent.  DOJ

April 21, 2015

Family Dermatology P.C., which owns and operates a dermatopathology lab in Georgia and several dermatology practices throughout the Eastern United States, agreed to pay $3,247,835 to settle allegations it violated the False Claims Act and the Stark Statute by engaging in improper financial relationships with a number of its employed physicians.  According to the government, Family Dermatology routinely required its dermatologists to use Family Dermatology’s in-house pathology lab, which operated under the name Nelson Dermatopathology, for their pathology services.  The allegations first arose in three whistleblower lawsuits filed under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act by Scott M. Ross MD, Mark F. Baucom and Harold Milstein MD.  They will collectively receive a whistleblower award of more than $584,000.  DOJ

March 6, 2015

New York physician Roman Johnson pleaded guilty for his involvement in a scheme to fraudulently bill Medicare for $14.2 million in claims for medically unnecessary treatments.  Johnson admitted that he and other medical providers at his clinic submitted claims to Medicare for medically unnecessary vitamin infusions, physical therapy, and occupational therapy that did not qualify for reimbursement by Medicare.  Johnson agreed to pay $5,386,363 in restitution which represents the total amount of money Medicare paid as the result of the fraudulent claims.  DOJ

February 27, 2015

Miami residents Blanca Ruiz and Alina Fonts were sentenced to serve 72 months in prison for their roles in a $63M Medicare fraud scheme involving intensive mental health treatment programs.  According to the evidence, Ruiz and Fonts were employed at Health Care Solutions Network Inc. which purported to provide intensive treatment for severe mental illness but instead billed Medicare and Medicaid for treatment not medically necessary and often not provided at all.  DOJ

February 27, 2015

Gerald R. Funderburg Jr., owner of Funderburg Clinical & Community Services, was sentenced to 87 months in prison and to pay $1.45M in restitution for violating the False Claims Act through his submission of false claims to Medicare for purported psychotherapy services.  Specifically, Funderburg admitted he used the Medicare information and identities of hundreds of Medicare beneficiaries without their consent to submit claims for psychotherapy services not actually provided.  DOJ

February 24, 2015

Acadiana Cardiology LLC, Acadiana Cardiovascular Center and convicted doctor Mehmood Patel agreed to pay $650,000 to settle charges they violated the False Claims Act through unnecessary cardiovascular, endovascular and related procedures that Patel performed at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Lafayette General Medical Center, Acadiana Cardiology and Acadiana Cardiovascular Center.  The allegations originated in a whistleblower lawsuit filed under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act by Dr. Christopher Mallavarapu, a cardiologist who formerly practiced with Patel.  DOJ

February 24, 2015

Louisiana oncologist Prabhjit S. Purewal agreed to pay $550,000 to settle allegations he defrauded Medicare, Tricare and Medicaid in violation of the False Claims Act by billing for chemotherapy drugs not approved by the FDA.  Dr. Purewal purchased the drugs from UK-based drug distributor Warwick Healthcare Solutions, Inc. (also known as Richard’s Pharma), which did not have a license to distribute drugs in the US.  DOJ

February 13, 2015

Illinois physician Dr. Michael J. Reinstein pleaded guilty to the crime of receiving illegal kickbacks and benefits totaling nearly $600,000 from pharmaceutical manufacturer Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. and its subsidiary IVAX LLC in exchange for regularly prescribing the anti-psychotic drug clozapine to his patients.  Reinstein also agreed to pay $3.79M to settle a parallel civil lawsuit alleging he violated the False Claims Act for causing the submission of false claims to Medicare and Medicaid for the clozapine he prescribed for thousands of elderly and indigent patients in at least 30 Chicago-area nursing homes and other facilities.  In March 2014, Teva Pharmaceuticals and IVAX paid $27.6M million for their role in the kickback scheme. DOJ
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