3 charged in Medicare fraud scheme
Published: 2010-07-20 19:30:00By: Bob LaMendola | Sun Sentinel | April 23, 2010
Federal agents charged three men Friday with billing Medicare for at least $2.9 million of phony physical therapy, in what officials say is a new version of health care fraud in South Florida.
The Miami men ran therapy centers in Plantation and Miami, and paid kickbacks to patients and health care organizations in order to bill Medicare for thousands of sessions that never happened or were billed at inflated rates, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for South Florida.
While these false billings are small by South Florida fraud standards, the case marks a new type of Medicare fraud, said Kirk Ogrosky, an attorney who left this month as a U.S. Department of Justice chief over health care fraud.
"Over the last six months, [physical therapy] has been an area where fraud has been spiking in South Florida," Ogrosky said. "In many ways the fraud in South Florida is cyclical. This is the one they are moving to now."
In the past decade, federal officials have made dozens of arrests for health care fraud involving medical equipment, HIV/AIDS intravenous treatments and high-priced home health care. Ogrosky said some company owners in those fields have now shifted to physical therapy centers.
The three Miami men arrested were: Ernesto Angel Montaner, who fled the country in February 2009; his son, Ernesto Montaner, and Jose Antonio Varona. Neither the men nor their attorneys could be located to comment.