Miami, Jan 30 (EFE).- Two Florida doctors were convicted of plotting a criminal plot that defrauded the public health system, Medicare, of more than 31 million dollars through false claims for “expensive medical equipment” that the beneficiaries of this government program they did not need, the US Department of Justice reported Monday.
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Dean Zusmer, 54, a Miami resident and chiropractor by profession, “conspired with others to steal millions of dollars from Medicare” in addition to making bribery payments.
Zusmer owned one of four durable medical equipment (DME) companies that collectively fraudulently billed Medicare for more than $31 million, of which they received more than $15 million.
Zusmer and his accomplices “obtained patient referrals and signed medical orders by paying bribes to marketers” who used overseas call centers to solicit patients.
In addition, from these call centers they used telemedicine companies to “obtain prescriptions for unnecessary orthopedic devices for these patients,” the US Department of Justice said in a statement.
Another implicated in the scam, Lawrence Alexander, 45, also a Miami resident and an orthopedic surgeon, co-owned one of the DME companies and “concealed his involvement” and that of another convict, Jeremy Wasman, through the ” scheme to place the DME company under the name of one of his relatives”.
Zusmer, who faces a maximum sentence of ten years in prison, was convicted of the crimes of “conspiracy to commit health care fraud, health care fraud and illegal payment of health care bribes and false statements related to matters of medical care”.
While Alexander was convicted of “false statements related to health care matters” and faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
Since 2007, the health care fraud program, made up of 15 entities operating in 24 federal districts, has filed charges against more than 4,200 individuals who, together, have fraudulently billed Medicare for more than $19 billion. Dollars. EFE
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