Clearwater Criminal Defense Law Blog

A Massachusetts hospital has agreed to pay to the Federal government $26.67 million to settle claims that it improperly billed government programs for illegally-obtained referrals and testing equipment that was not eligible for reimbursement because the testing was a product of paid-for referrals.Per prosecutors, the Boston hospital conspired with several other parties to obtain referrals by way of doctors to whom they paid kickbacks disguised as investment returns. They say the hospital established management service organizations that funneled the kickbacks to doctors with the help of...

A former health care executive in Tennessee was sentenced to 3-1/2 years in Federal prison last week on a guilty plea for her alleged involvement in a scheme to pay $4.6 million in kickbacks for illicit Medicare referrals. The 71-year-old woman is accused by prosecutors to have agreed to pay illegal kickbacks to the CEO of a pain management clinic in exchange for providing Medicare referrals for durable medical equipment (DME). Prosecutors say the CEO provided the referrals in exchange for 60 percent of the proceeds derived from Medicare. In order to obscure the illegal kickbacks,...

Two mental health providers in Tallahassee have been indicted by a federal grand jury following accusations of over 80 counts of Medicaid fraud, aggravated identity theft and false statements related to health care.The case began after the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit started an investigation into the mental health providers. The indictment states that the manager of North Florida Mental Health and a signatory made false and fictitious claims for reimbursement and payment to Florida Medicaid and managed care organizations. They claim to have performed services including psychiatric diagnostic...

Defrauding the government is one of the worst things that a person can do in terms of white collar crimes. Government fraud convictions can lead to years behind bars and extensive fines.The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that theft accounts for over half of all fraud cases in the United States, and making false statements made up a quarter of additional cases. These cases included actions such as forgery, accepting bribes, extortion and others. Interestingly, when suspects were identified in relation to cases of fraud against the government, the GAO admits that only...