Corporate Compliance

Florida men indicted for Medicare fraud in HIV infusion clinics

Healthcare Auditing Weekly, April 14, 2009

On April 7, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida R. Alexander Acosta unsealed an indictment charging three South Florida men with multiple counts of mail fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy in a multi-million dollar Medicare fraud case, according to a press release from Acosta’s office.

The Internal Revenue Service, the OIG, and the Broward County Sheriff’s Office were also involved in charging Alejandro Gonzalez, Robert Rodriguez, and Manuel Camacho. The indictment alleges the three men operated multiple medical clinics in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties, providing infusion drug therapy treatments to patients suffering from AIDS or HIV. The defendants allegedly gave patients cash kickbacks to visit the clinics, and also allegedly caused the manipulation of patients’ blood samples to alter results of blood tests, which resulted in patients receiving unnecessary infusion treatments.

The defendants’ suspected actions resulted in more than $40 million in false claims to Medicare, of which Medicare paid $12 million. If convicted, the defendants face up to 20 years in prison for each of the 14 counts of mail fraud and conspiracy, and 10 years in prison for each of the 15 counts related to money laundering, according to the press release.

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