Headline News
Three S. Fla. Fraud Schemes Derailed by Strike Force
MIAMI--The operators of several HME companies that defrauded Medicare of more than $22 million are set for sentencing in three separate cases announced last week by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida and the Miami Field Office of the FBI.
The cases are part of a massive crackdown on health care fraud in South Florida that was announced earlier in the year by U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta of the Southern District of Florida and the Department of Justice. (See
HomeCare Monday, May 14.) Since March, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force has brought over 70 cases of health care fraud involving 85 defendants, authorities said.In the largest of the three cases, the owner of two Miami-based HMEs pleaded guilty Aug. 31 to defrauding Medicare in a $6.4 million scheme. Raul Rodriguez, 34, of Miramar, owner of R & J Medical Services and N.R. Medical Services, pleaded guilty to four separate counts of health care fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to obstruct an FBI investigation, prosecutors said.
Rodriguez, who also owned Coral Way Professional Health Services, an HIV medical clinic, agreed to a $5.7 million judgment and forfeiture of a bank account, cash and a $100,000 Land Rover. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and potential fines of $12.8 million. He will be sentenced Nov. 30.
Rodriguez became the eighth defendant to plead guilty in the case. Armando Arias, Carlos Enrique Monteagudo, Alain Rhaf Vega, Marisol Gonzalez-Torres, Edith Balog, Yulen Arderi and Jannette Morales entered guilty pleas in August. Two others, Lazaro Jorge Ocejo and Ramon De Los Santos, were sentenced earlier this year on fraud conspiracy and money laundering charges in related cases. De Los Santos was sentenced to a prison term of 21 months, while Ocejo was sentenced to 37 months.
According to the authorities, from 2004 through 2005, Rodriguez and the co-defendants submitted more than $12.5 million in false and fraudulent claims for medical equipment, HIV treatments and medications. The scheme involved recruiting and paying patients to be treated at the Coral Way clinic. The patients were injected with saline instead of prescribed drugs, Rodriguez, Arias and Gonzalez-Torres admitted.
