Tag Archives: medicare

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 [...]

Your 2012 New Year’s Resolution: Don’t Get Scammed!

History repeats itself. Fact. George Santayana once stated, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This fact holds true with every aspect of one’s life, especially in one’s financial life. And especially in the world of scams. If you’re not up to date and familiar with the latest scams and schemes [...]

Fraud Scheme Related to the World Trade Center Site Clean-Up

A trucking company’s owners have been indicted on embezzlement, tax evasion and million dollar fraud charges related to the World Trade Center site clean-up. A thirty-one count indictment was unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn this month charging trucking company owners Gerardo P. Fusella and Vincent J. Fusella, Jr., with crimes including embezzlement, mail fraud [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Commonwealth Temporary Services Owner Sentenced For “One Of The Most Egregious Tax Evasion Schemes”

It was announced on October 26, 2011 that Michael Powers, former owner of Commonwealth Temporary Services, a temporary employment agency, has been sentenced to seven years in prison in “one of the most egregious tax evasion schemes” the sentencing judge had ever come across. The former temp agency apparently ran a $30 million under-the-table payroll [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Alleged Obstruction Of Justice Of Attorney And Client In $188 Million Fraud

At one point in time attorney, Fredrick Cuppy, represented the former owner and chief executive, Peter Rogan, of the bankrupt Edgewayer Hospital and Medical Center in Chicago. Cuppy has now been arrested on federal charges flaming that he and his onetime client, Rogam committed perjury and obstruction of justice to prevent efforts by the government [...]

Medicare Fraud By “Erectile Pump” – Really, I Can’t Make This Stuff Up

In my research lately I’ve found story after story of Medicare or health insurance fraud. After a while, day after day, story after story, it all tends to run together. Except for the doozey I’m about to inform you all about. This one stands out and/or up. Gary Winner, an Illinois resident and owner of [...]