According to a press release, the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) announced that it will be awarding $9 million from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) to Senior Medicare Patrol (“SMP”) programs across the country tasked at fighting Medicare fraud. SMP is operated by the Administration…
Premier Home Care, a Durable Medical Equipment company operating in Indiana and Kentucky, agreed to pay a $578,820 settlement with the United States Department of Justice and the State of Indiana in a Whistleblower action alleging violations of the False Claims Act. In 2008, a former employee filed suit against…
In an indictment unsealed on October 12, Matthew Kolodesh (a/k/a “Matvei Kolodech”) was charged with a laundry list of crimes, including 1 count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, 21 counts of healthcare fraud, 2 counts of mail fraud and 11 counts of money laundering of monetary instruments over $10,000.…
In a press release issued September 27, 2011, the United States Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the FBI announced that two Miami-area residents pled guilty for their roles in a $25 million home health Medicare fraud scheme. Both defendants pled guilty to conspiracy to…
The Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) has issued its monthly Recovery Act Oversight report for July 2011. The report revealed what many already know: audits and investigations are have increased considerably since 2009, the year the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009…
On September 1, 2011, the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the FBI and the HHS Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) jointly announced that eighteen individuals have been charged in the Eastern District of Michigan for their participation in a series of separate Medicare fraud…
Statistics recently released by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a Syracuse University Research organization, show a marked increase in federal health care fraud prosecutions. The statistics show 903 federal prosecutions for health care fraud through the first eight months of 2011, compared to 731 such prosecutions for all of…
In its over-300-page complaint filed on 8/19/2011, GEICO General Insurance Company, et. al (hereinafter referred to as “GEICO”) asserts that the 32 defendants named in this case–13 physicians, 18 entities, and 1 entity owner– (“Defendants”) defrauded GEICO in an amount in excess of $12.1 million under New York’s No-Fault Insurance…
In a press release issued by the US Department of Justice of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, a 498-count indictment–240 counts of which involved healthcare fraud–charged 53 defendants, including a physician and pharmacist, in a multi-million dollar drug conspiracy. The press release states that William Stukes–a drug trafficker of Philadelphia–and…
On July 21, 2011, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) announced that Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Steven T. Kessel upheld OIG’s exclusion of Michael D. Dinkel from participation in all Federal health care programs under section 1128(b)(7) of the Social Security…