Los Angeles Medicare Fraud

Published on: July 20, 2012

Medicare Fraud in Los Angeles News Alert: PA Man Faces 23-count Indictment in $5.4 Million Scheme

Are you under investigation for committing Medicare fraud in Los Angeles or elsewhere throughout the Southland?

If so, you may find it instructive to read about the disappointing case of William V. Hlushmanuk, also known as “Bill Le,” a 35-year-old ambulance driver in Pennsylvania who has been charged with trying to defraud Medicare out of over $5.4 million, from 2006 to 2011. Last week, an indictment against Hlushmanuk was unsealed, hitting him with 21 charges of healthcare fraud on top of aiding and abetting in a false statement and conspiring to commit healthcare fraud.

Hlushmanuk, who had a criminal record, created a “straw owner” to open a service called Starcare Ambulance to transport kidney dialysis patients. These patients had the capacity to walk, so Medicare should not be required to pay for their transportation, but Hlushmanuk apparently worked out a scheme to bill the government anyway.

Published on: July 12, 2012

Medical Identity Theft in Los Angeles Can Cost Victims $100,000+, Says New Study

by Michael Kraut

Medical identity theft bonks the U.S. economy to the tune of over $41 billion and costs victims over $20,000 on average, according to a provocative new study by the Ponemon Institute.

If you’ve been charged with Medicare fraud or identity theft in Southern California, you might find it educational to learn about what happens to victims of medical identity theft. Perhaps, for instance, you aided and abetted someone – that is, lent your healthcare information to a family member or sick friend – and now you face criminal charges. The study out of Michigan looked at 757 cases of medical identity theft. Here are some of the stats:

• 41% of victims lost their coverage and had to find new healthcare;

Published on: June 25, 2012

Los Angeles Medicare Fraud Alert – The Government Spent $250 Million on Penis Pumps. Wow.

by Michael Kraut

If you’ve been investigated arrested for a crime like Southern California Medicare fraud or Medi-Cal fraud, you likely feel under the gun. Prosecutors, “independent” observers and even friends and family members may judge you for damaging our social safety net.

Whether you committed a serious crime or not – or a series of crimes, including Southern California insurance fraud, Los Angeles identity theft, or other Los Angeles white collar crimes – you might find it helpful to put your situation in perspective.

Consider, for instance, a new report by the Heartland Institute, which found that the federal government spent over $250 million on penis pumps over the past 10 years!

Published on: June 20, 2012

Unraveling Your Own Los Angeles Medical Fraud Situation

by Michael Kraut

Perhaps you or your husband recently got arrested for medical fraud in Los Angeles or Southern California. If so, let’s address a large “elephant in the room” issue — something not often talked about. Namely this: how do otherwise caring and well intention doctors, chiropractors, dentists and other caregivers get “sucked into” perpetrating Southern California white collar crimes, like insurance fraud, credit card fraud, etc?

Now, most people out there assume that doctors or others who engage in fraudulent behavior started with a “master plan” of some sort. They have a cartoonish image of an “evil mastermind” criminal – a la Dr. Evil.

In the real world, however, fraud and other crimes often happen spontaneously, accidentally, unintentionally, etc! This isn’t to say that planning is not involved. Indeed, many people who get into the “Medicare fraud business” (if you will) spend a great deal of time strategizing and executing on their plans. Some of the systems used are extremely complicated, after all.

Published on: June 13, 2012

72 Year Prison Sentence for 50-Year-Old Guilty of Los Angeles Medicare Fraud?

by Michael Kraut

Last Friday, 50-year-old David James Garrison was found guilty of perpetrating a Los Angeles Medicare fraud scam that bilked the federal program out of almost $19 million.

As a result of his convictions — fraud, conspiracy, and other Los Angeles white collar criminal charges — Garrison could face more than seven decades behind bars and a fine of up to $2 million. If he ends up having to serve that entire prison sentence, he would have to become the 2nd oldest person in the history of the world to ever see freedom again.

Garrison worked as a physician’s assistant at various bogus medical clinics. He pilfered the identities of patients and used those IDs to create false prescriptions and to place orders for (Medicare funded) equipment. He also stole the identities of doctors to write these fake scripts.

Published on: June 11, 2012

Los Angeles Medicare Fraud News Alert: Scheme Out of Pennsylvania Has Seniors Livid

by Michael Kraut

If you or a loved one has been arrested for Los Angeles Medicare or Medical fraud, odds are that what you did (or allegedly did) pales in comparison to what four Pennsylvania men have been accused of doing. Last week, Ross Rabelow, Thomas Muldoon, Bruce Cherry, and Robert Lerner were hit with multiple criminal charges pursuant to accusations that they victimised 218 Pennsylvania seniors. Prosecutors allege that many of the victims lived alone and were very elderly – 83-years old was the average age. The Attorney General’s Insurance Fraud Section and Elder Abuse Unit called the scheme “Operation False Comfort,” and investigators painted a vivid and disturbing picture about what went on:

• Seniors were often encouraged to cancel actual insurance policies to purchase bogus long-term healthcare;

• More than two-thirds of all the checks written to American Comfort (one of the defendant’s companies) were used to pay salespeople and the owners, while only 3% of the company’s money was used to provide services;

Published on: May 21, 2012

The Los Angeles Medicare Fraud News: The Sad Case of a Temple University Dean’s Fraud Charge

by Michael Kraut

Most people really do not understand what is likely to be a defendant in a Los Angeles Medicare fraud case. While the general public has some sympathy for people who commit crimes like petty theft or white color crimes or even some certain kinds of insurance fraud, most people have a bad picture in their minds of medical fraud defendants. They picture them as brilliant cold blooded schemers who have no conscience.

If you or someone you care about has been charged with a fraud crime, you obviously know this Doctor Evil like caricature does not hold water. Even if you did engage in a complex, illegal and even immoral scheme, odds are that you did not plan to be in your current position when you chose to become a doctor, chiropractor, dentist, or other care giver. You went into this business to provide care – not to wind up prosecuted for fraud.

In that light, let’s consider the case of 62-year old Dr. Joseph Kubacki, a former Assistant Dean at Temple University School of Medicine, who was sentenced last week for his role in running a fraudulent Medicare billing scheme. Kubacki, who once served as the chair of Temple’s ophthalmology department, had been billing the government for medical services that residents provided – even when he was not around. All told, the penalty for the scheme clocked in at over $676,000. Kubacki had worked for Temple for nearly 30 years, when school investigators discovered what was going on and confronted him in 2007.

Published on: May 16, 2012

Massive Medicare Fraud Strike Force Arrest Over 100 in Los Angeles and Beyond

by Michael Kraut

107 people were apprehended for healthcare fraud in Los Angeles, Chicago, Tampa, Baton Rouge, Miami, Houston, and Detroit the week before last. Investigators allege that the defendants (in total) are responsible for around $450 million in illegal Medicare bills.

Wow.

As this blog and other sources have reported, the Obama administration has gone to great lengths to crack down on Medicare fraud in Southern California and beyond. Recent estimates suggest that around $20 billion of taxpayer funds have been recovered in various antifraud operations. This latest Medicare Fraud Strike Force action named a diverse roster of defendants, including therapists, social workers, physicians, ambulance businesses, healthcare companies, and pharmacists. Annual estimates of healthcare fraud in this country are mindboggling. Upwards of nearly $100 billion may be pilfered every year through various fraudulent enterprises and scams.

Published on: May 9, 2012

Understanding Your Own Southern California Medical Fraud Scheme

by Michael Kraut

If you are under investigation for Southern California medical fraud – or if you have already been arrested and charged – your big concern is: What comes next?

How can you construct an effective, ethically coherent defense to the charges against you? Will you be able to save your business or practice? Will you have to serve jail time? Will you lose your license ? Etc.

Before you can even get a handle on these questions, you need to understand your current reality. Yes, you have gotten in trouble with the law – or you are on the verge of getting in trouble. And perhaps you also recognize that you have engaged in practices or activities that are illegal or, at the very least, legally and ethically ambiguous. At the same time, however, you may not even recognize the full extent of what you have done wrong – or what the prosecutors will say that you have done wrong. For instance:

Published on: April 27, 2012

Will Your Los Angeles Medicare Fraud Charges Cost You $43 Million, Too?

by Michael Kraut

If you have been hit with a Los Angeles Medicare fraud charge, you are probably frightened about the penalties that potentially lie before you. But no matter what your outcome, you will almost certainly pay less than the bill just handed to Tenet Healthcare for overcharging Medicare – a whopping $42.8 million.

According to the Federal government, the nation’s second biggest for-profit hospital chain overbilled Medicare for a variety of services between 2005 and 2007. All told, 50 hospitals engaged in processes of moving patients from normal hospitals to pricier facilities after patients had undergone certain procedures. A Tenet spokesperson actually said that the chain was “proud of” providing extra care for patients who really probably didn’t need it.

Interesting.