TAMPA, Fla.--Four family members who owned a series of Miami DME companies and outpatient rehab facilities have each been sentenced to 57 months in prison for Medicare fraud, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta of the Southern District of Florida announced Nov. 9.

Carlos Berenguer, 61, Ivan Aguera, 34, Aristides Berenguer, 64, and Robert Berenguer, 58, were sentenced for their roles in a $20 million Medicare kickback and medication billing scheme, according to the U.S. Attorney's office. In addition to their prison terms, each was ordered to pay over $1.4 million in restitution.

The four defendants pleaded guilty to 14 criminal counts in March.

Brothers Carlos and Aristides Berenguer owned Select Medical Equipment, while another brother, Robert Berenguer, owned Professional Medical Equipment. Carlos Berenguer's stepson, Ivan Aguera, owned Palm Medical Equipment. Through these companies, the four recruited and paid Medicare patients to participate in schemes involving false claims for unnecessary oxygen concentrators and compounded aerosol medications.

Prosecutors said none of the four defendants owned a pharmacy capable of billing Medicare for drugs, so they conspired with the owners of Miami pharmacies to refer patients in exchange for half of what Medicare paid for aerosol drugs. From 2001 to 2003, the Berenguers and Aguera were responsible for Medicare's payment of over $1.4 million based on false claims.

Another family member, Ricardo Aguera, who owned three Miami health care companies, was sentenced to 121 months in prison following a week-long jury trial in March.

According to the U.S. Attorney's office, the aerosol medication scheme was one of the most common health care frauds in south Florida. In 2006, Medicare paid over $155 million for aerosol meds in Miami-Dade County, making it the single most common item billed to Part B. From 2005 to 2006, claims for aerosol medications increased over 100 percent. In addition, according to Medicare data, Miami-Dade County alone accounted for more paid DME claims than every state in the country except California, Texas, New York, Michigan and Ohio.

Kirk Ogrosky, deputy chief of the fraud section of the U.S. Attorney's criminal division, Miami, and Jeffrey Neiman, trial attorney with the fraud section of the Department of Justice, Washington, prosecuted the case with assistance from the HHS Office of Inspector General, the FBI and the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the Florida Attorney General's Office.

In related news, another south Florida DME provider was sentenced to more than five years in prison for her role in a compounded aerosol medications scheme.

Marianela Smith was sentenced to a 66-month prison term and ordered to pay $363,000 in restitution by the U.S District Court for the Southern District of Florida Nov. 9. Smith, who was tried in August, was found guilty of five criminal counts involving physician kickbacks for phony prescriptions for the compounded meds. According to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's office, she obtained the aerosol medications from previously convicted pharmacy owners in Miami. Between 2000 and 2003, those pharmacies billed Medicare more than $17 million.

Since beginning operations in March, Medicare Fraud Strike Force teams in South Florida have indicted 120 defendants in Miami-Dade County alone. Read more about the Strike Force, click here.

To read more about the case against Marianela Smith, see HomeCare Monday, Sept. 10.