Los Angeles woman pleads guilty to participating in a $6.2 million Medicare fraud scheme
Compliance Monitor, April 6, 2011
Carolyn Ann Vasquez of Los Angeles pleaded guilty to using fraudulent medical clinics and the stolen identities of physicians to defraud Medicare of more than $6.2 million, according to a Department of Justice press release.
From 2007 to 2008, Vasquez and co-conspirators used a series of fraudulent Los Angeles–area medical clinics and the Medicare provider numbers of physicians who did and didn’t work at those clinics to submit false claims to Medicare. Vasquez and co-conspirators received Medicare reimbursement for services the physicians did not perform and for power wheelchairs, medical equipment, and diagnostic tests that the physicians did not order or prescribe. Vasquez admitted that as a result of her conduct Medicare was defrauded of approximately $6.2 million.
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