Largest Medicare Fraud Case in History Cracked by Feds
Posted By Jeffrey Vallens on Jul 17, 2010 8:57am PDT
94 people were charged Friday with defrauding the Medicare System of over $250 million. Arrests went down in Miami, New York, Detroit, Houston and Baton Rouge in what is being described as the largest Medicare scam in history.
Suspects in several different states were alleged to have billed Medicare for supplies that were never received and treatment that never happened. Allegations include paying patients to visit doctors or otherwise allow the use of patients' Medicare numbers for billing purposes.
In one case nearly 4,000 claims to Medicare were allegedly submitted over a six year period on behalf of one woman in Brooklyn, New York. In another case, one medical group in Brooklyn allegedly submitted claims for $72 million worth of physical therapy.
Federal authorities say that modern efforts enable law enforcement and Medicare to view new claims and try to identify suspicious patterns. But apparently this did not stop the Benitez brothers who are accused of billing Medicare for $119 million in HIV drugs that patients never received. With their profits they were said to have bought boats, hotels and even helicoptors. Authorities describe them as "Medicare's Most Wanted" and suspect they fled to Cuba.
I'll bet they didn't save any of that $119 million for a rainy day...because it's raining boys.
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