Medicare Fraud Strike Force Continues to Generate Successful Prosecutions in Florida

The Medicare Fraud Strike Force is operating heavily in South Florida and its investigations continue to generate successful prosecutions of Medicare fraud as indicated by several recent press releases by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida. These successfully prosecuted cases were all investigated by the FBI and HHS-OIG as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force under the supervision of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida. The Medicare Fraud Strike Force is a multi-agency team of federal, state, and local investigators designed to fight Medicare fraud. Press releases of these recent successful prosecutions followed news of a May 2013 “nationwide takedown by Medicare Fraud Strike Force operations in eight cities [that] resulted in charges against 89 individuals, including doctors, nurses and other licensed medical professionals, for their alleged participation in Medicare fraud schemes involving approximately $223 million in false billings,” which included the arrest of defendants in Tampa and Miami.

According to an August 30, 2013 press release concerning a $63 million Medicare fraud scheme:

Lisset Palmero, 45, of Miami, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga in the Southern District of Florida. In addition to her prison term, Palmero was sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $17.4 million. During the course of the conspiracy, Palmero was employed as a receptionist and office manager at HCSN, a mental health facility that purported to provide Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP) services. A PHP is a form of intensive treatment for severe mental illness. HCSN of Florida (HCSN-FL) operated community mental health centers at two locations. According to court documents, Palmero was aware that HCSN-FL paid illegal kickbacks to owners and operators of Miami-Dade County Assisted Living Facilities (ALF) in exchange for patient referral information to be used to submit false and fraudulent claims to Medicare and Medicaid. Palmero also knew that many of the ALF referral patients were ineligible for PHP services because they suffered from mental retardation, dementia or Alzheimer's disease. Court documents reveal that Palmero was aware that HCSN-FL personnel were fabricating patient medical records. Many of these medical records were created weeks or months after the patients were admitted to HCSN-FL for purported PHP treatment. Palmero was also aware that medical records were fabricated for “ghost patients” who were never admitted to the HCSN-FL PHP. During her employment at HCSN-FL, Palmero actively concealed the fabrication of medical records by preparing, and causing others to prepare, documentation that was later utilized to support false and fraudulent billing to government-sponsored health care benefit programs, including Medicare and Florida Medicaid. According to court documents, from 2004 through 2011, HCSN billed Medicare and the Florida Medicaid program approximately $63 million for purported HCSN-FL mental health services.

According to an August 13, 2013 press release concerning an $8 million health care fraud scheme:

Miguel Jimenez, 43, and Marina Sanchez Pajon, 29, of Miami, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Ursula Ungaro in the Southern District of Florida, each to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud. At sentencing, scheduled for Oct. 30, 2013, Jimenez and Pajon each face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. Jimenez and Pajon, who are married, were owners and operators of Flores Home Health, a Miami home health care agency that purported to provide home health and physical therapy services to Medicare beneficiaries. According to court documents, Jimenez and Pajon operated Flores Home Health for the purpose of billing Medicare for, among other things, expensive physical therapy and home health care services that were not medically necessary and/or were not provided. Jimenez’s primary role at Flores Home Health involved controlling the company and running and overseeing the schemes conducted through Flores Home Health. Both Jimenez and Pajon were responsible for negotiating and paying kickbacks and bribes, interacting with patient recruiters, and coordinating and overseeing the submission of fraudulent claims submitted to the Medicare program. Jimenez, Pajon and their co-conspirators paid kickbacks and bribes to patient recruiters in return for the recruiters providing patients to Flores Home Health for home health and therapy services that were medically unnecessary and/or not provided. They also paid kickbacks and bribes to co-conspirators in doctors’ offices and clinics in exchange for home health and therapy prescriptions, medical certifications, and other documentation. Jimenez, Pajon, and their co-conspirators used the prescriptions, medical certifications, and other documentation to fraudulently bill Medicare for home health care services that Jimenez and Pajon knew were in violation of federal criminal laws. From approximately October 2009 through approximately June 2012, Flores Home Health was paid approximately $8 million by Medicare for fraudulent claims for home health services that were not medically necessary and/or not provided.

 According to a July 1, 2013 press release concerning a $70 million Medicare fraud scheme:

Karen Kallen-Zury, 59, of Lighthouse Point, Fla., and Daisy Miller, 44, of Hollywood, Fla., were each found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and health care fraud, five substantive counts of wire fraud and two substantive counts of health care fraud. Michele Petrie, 64, of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and health care fraud and three substantive counts of wire fraud. Kallen-Zury, Miller, Petrie and a fourth defendant, Christian Coloma, 49, of Miami Beach, Fla., were also convicted of one count of conspiracy to pay bribes in connection with Medicare, with Kallen-Zury and Coloma also each being convicted on five substantive counts of paying bribes. “The defendants participated in a massive scheme that attempted to defraud the United States of approximately $70 million by taking advantage of Medicare beneficiaries,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Raman. “By paying bribes to a network of patient recruiters and falsifying documents, the defendants created the illusion of providing intensive psychiatric care to qualifying patients, when in reality they provided no care of substance. The verdict illustrates the success of the inter-agency Medicare Fraud Strike Force, which is dedicated to stamping out Medicare fraud.” The defendants were charged in an indictment returned on Oct. 2, 2012. Evidence at trial demonstrated that the defendants and their co-conspirators caused the submission of false and fraudulent claims to Medicare through HP, a state-licensed psychiatric hospital located in Hollywood that purportedly provided, among other things, inpatient psychiatric care and intensive outpatient psychiatric care. The defendants paid illegal bribes and kickbacks to patient brokers in order to obtain Medicare beneficiaries as patients at HP who did not qualify for psychiatric treatment. The defendants then submitted claims to Medicare for those patients who were procured through bribes and kickbacks. Karen Kallen-Zury, the CEO and registered agent of HP, attempted to conceal the payment of bribes and kickbacks by creating false documents to make it appear as if legitimate services were being rendered. Evidence at trial established that Miller, the clinical director of HP’s inpatient facility, and Petrie, the head of HP’s intensive outpatient program, facilitated the payment of bribes to patient recruiters and oversaw the fraudulent admissions and treatment of unqualified patients. Trial evidence also demonstrated that Coloma, the director of physical therapy for an entity associated with HP, facilitated the payment of bribes and kickbacks, and he supervised the creation of false documents to conceal the bribery scheme. From at least 2003 through at least August 2012, HP billed Medicare nearly $70 million for services that were not properly rendered, for patients that did not qualify for the services being billed and for claims for patients who were procured through bribes and kickbacks.