Two Miami-area corporations plead guilty to $200 million Medicare fraud scheme
Compliance Monitor, May 11, 2011
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American Therapeutic Corporation (ATC) and Medlink Professional Management Group Inc., pleaded guilty to a fraud scheme that resulted in the submission of more than $200 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare, according to a Department of Justice press release.
ATC, a Florida corporation headquartered in Miami, operated partial hospitalization programs (PHP) in seven different locations throughout South Florida and Orlando. Medlink is a Florida corporation headquartered in Miami that purported to act as a management company for healthcare businesses.
Marianella Valera, the president of ATC, and Lawrence S. Duran, the president of Medlink, entered the pleas on behalf of their corporations. Valera and Duran each pleaded guilty on April 14 to all counts charged against them individually in the superseding indictment. According to that indictment, Duran, Valera and others caused the alteration of patient files and therapist notes for the purpose of making it appear that patients being treated by ATC qualified for PHP treatments. Duran, Valera and others also paid kickbacks to owners and operators of assisted living facilities, halfway houses, and patient brokers in exchange for delivering ineligible patients to ATC.
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