Florida Criminal Attorney Blog
A Fort Lauderdale eye doctor received a 17-year sentence in February for apparently stealing $73 million from Medicare by persuading elderly patients to undergo excruciating tests and treatments they didn’t need for diseases they didn’t have.
The man was convicted of 67 crimes including health care fraud, submitting false claims, and falsifying records in patients’ files.
Prosecutors showed that between 2008 and 2013, he became the nation’s highest-paid Medicare doctor, building his practice by giving elderly patients unnecessary eye injections and laser blasts on their retinas that some compared to torture.
The 63-year-old was ordered to pay $42.6 million in restitution to Medicare.
Prosecutors argued he stole $136 million but his attorneys insisted the proven total was $64,000. US District Judge Kenneth A. Marra said the evidence shows the theft was at least $73 million.
The man could have been given a life sentence. Prosecutors had been seeking 30 years. Defense attorneys sought less than 10.
The man has been in custody since his April 28 conviction.
Our Florida Medicare Fraud Defense Lawyers at Whittel & Melton are here to help defense those accused of these charges. Recently, the government has started seriously cracking down on medicare fraud, so our Medicare Fraud Defense Lawyers are even more necessary now than in the past. Congress has introduced multiple bills to increase fines and jail time for medicare fraud, and the government now has several entities armed with the task of uncovering alleged medicare fraud. Facing a medicare fraud accusation is scary and the consequences are very real.
Financial penalties for the medicare fraud are severe and fines can be $10,000 or more per claim. Moreover, any healthcare providers convicted of fraud can be excluded from participating in the medicare program in the future. Those convicted can also face lengthy jail sentences as well as the loss of their practices. The government will usually try to claim multiple law violations for a single fraudulent claim, which will only result in more punishments if a conviction is achieved.