Tag Archives: health
- Consumer Warning: Bureau Of Prescription Health Charging For Free Assistance
If you’ve been doing business or contemplating doing business with the Missouri-based Bureau of Prescription Health the Better Business Bureau (BBB) is advising consumers to avoid this company. The Bureau of Prescription Health sounds like a trustworthy and reputable company (mainly because of the use of the word “Bureau”) but are in fact charging consumers [...]
- FTC Charges Settled By CVS After Deceptive Prescription Pricing For Seniors And Disabled Consumers
Stories like this scare me. Especially when I have family that utilizes these pharmacies and participates in the Medicare program. If you’re using Part D prescription drugs from CVS, read on…. It was announced late last week that the CVS Caremark Corporation has settled with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for deceptive pricing charges that [...]
- Defendants Arrested In Conjunction With $700,000 Health Care Fraud
Earlier this month three people, Ovsanna Agopian (aka Joanna Ovsanna / Joanna Smbatyan / Ovsanna Agopian), Boghos Babadjanian and Tolulope Labeodan, were charged in a federal indictment with various offenses related to their involvement in the operation of Euless Healthcare Corporation. The 10-count indictment charges each defendant with one count of conspiracy to commit health [...]
- Patient Recruiter Pleads Guilty To Role In Miami-Area $25 Million Home Health Medicare Fraud
Another defendant in the Miami $25 million home health Medicare fraud scheme pled guilty for her participation in the scheme as a patient recruiter. Beatriz Torres-Cruz pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and one count of solicitation of health care kickbacks. Torres-Cruz was charged in a February 2011 indictment. [...]
- Vanguard Settles With $2 Million In False Claims Act
It was announced last week that the United States and the State of Tennessee will be receiving $2 million in a settlement of False Claims Act allegations from Vanguard and its wholly owned subsidiary, Vanguard Health Care Ancillary. The settlement resolves claims by the United States and the state of Tennessee that Vanguard wrongly billed [...]
- Until Fraud Do Us Part : Married Fraudsters Face Jail Time For Health Care Kickbacks
Married floridian fraudsters, Robert and Nikki Jenkins have each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to solicit and receive health care kick backs after funneling patients through, American Therapeutic Corporation (ATC), a fraudulent mental health company. Then Jenkins’ managed and operated Life 4 Life Inc., which operated multiple halfway houses in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. [...]
- Two Of America’s “Most Wanted” Sentenced
Two of America’s “Most Wanted” health care fraud fugitives were sentenced in Florida last week. Two sisters, Caridad Guilarte and Clara Guilarte, owned a fraudulent medical clinic near Detroit that lead to a $9.1 million Medicare fraud scheme. Each of the sisters face 14 years in prison. In August the sisters plead guilty to one [...]
- Defendants Lose The Weight Of Their Assets In “Hoodia” Weight Loss Case
In April of 2009 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charged makers of a “Hoodia” weight loss supplement with deceptive advertising. The companies, Nutraceuticals International, Stella Labs and key company players and controllers David Romeo, Deborah Vickery, Craig Payton, and Zoltan Klivinyi claimed that using their product would lead to weight loss and appetite suppression. In [...]
- 135 Month Sentence For $45 Million Medicare Fraud
Houston, Texas doctor, Christina Joy Clardy, was sentenced to just over 11 years (135 months) in federal prison for a monumental health care fraud conspiracy the resulted in Medicare and Texas Medicaid programs to be billed $45,039,230 over a 30 month period. Clardy is the third defendant to be sentenced in this matter. Last week [...]
- Is It Prescription Harvesting Season Again? Sixteen Arrested In Conjunction With Operation “Psyched Out”
I love the names investigators attach to investigations. For example, last week 16 arrests in conduction with Operation “Psyched Out” were made. Operation “Psyched Out”! Love the name, not the act. Apparently sixteen people affiliated with the Manor Medical Imaging Clinic and pharmacies in and around the San Gabriel Valley in California participated in “prescription [...]
- FTC Asks To Restrict Pay-For-Delay Deals To Lower Consumers’ Health Care Costs
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has released a report of data pertaining to the 2011 fiscal year which showed that pharmaceutical companies continued an anticompetitive trend of paying potential generic rivals to delay the introduction of low-cost prescription drug alternatives for American consumers. If you’re like me, generic pharmaceutical drugs save my life, not only [...]
- Adult Baby Continues To Receive Social Security Benefits – Fraud Allegations Dropped
Stanley Thornton, Jr. was featured, not too long ago, on an episode of National Geographic’s television show, “Taboo” where his life of living as an Adult Baby was showcased. When I first came across this news story I immediately thought of an episode of CSI I had seen once of an adult man living his [...]
- Pharmacist Sentenced To Nearly 5 Years In Prison For Medicaid Fraud
Healthcare fraud and money laundering? Again? Sure, why not. John Love has been sentenced to 51 months in jail for laundering money and defrauding the healthcare system. Love apparently used taxpayer’s money to live well beyond his means and his sentence is meant to make it clear to others defrauding the system that there is [...]
- Whistle Blower Is Rewarded For Uncovering Medicare Fraud
Dr. Steven Stern and his Kentuckiana Center for Better Bone and Joint Health (KCB) practice have agreed to pay $349,860 to settle an overfilling of Medicare allegation. Suzette Sewell-Scheuremann, a former employee of the Kentuckiana Center for Better Bone and Joint Health, alleged that Stern and his practice billed Medicare for infusing Infliximab which is [...]
- Make Your Body A Part Of Your Financial Future
Did I catch your attention? No, I’m not talking about selling yourself. I do, however, want you to think of your body as a financial asset. Whenever I see blogs or articles about planning for your future, I usually read some similar tips: Invest in a 401(k) or IRA. Create an emergency fund. Pay off [...]