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Nurses accused of home health scam Posted 11-2-98 Federal agents have dismantled a large Medicare fraud ring, in which nurses and physicians conspired to bilk U.S. taxpayers out of $10 million by filing fraudulent Medicare claims through a home care agency serving the Miami area, prosecutors alleged in an indictment unsealed in September. The Miami U.S. Attorney’s Office charged that 39 people—including 12 nurses and seven physicians—participated in the scheme. Prosecutors alleged the sophisticated ring, operating out of Miami, was part of a $3 billion healthcare fraud problem in southern Florida. The state is home to thousands of elderly Medicare recipients. The agency, Amitan Health Services of Dade County, operated as a Medicare-certified home health agency from 1995 to September 1997. It is accused of billing the Medicare more than $10 million for home health visits that never took place or were made to patients who didn’t need them. The indictments were the result of a three-year undercover investigation by the FBI, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Internal Revenue Service, and the U.S. Postal Service. Prosecutors allege Amitan’s owners, Ramon Dominguez and Rene Corvo, worked with a ring of nurses and physicians to overbill for services. The nurses and physicians were paid to sign fraudulent medical papers to make the claims look authentic, the indictment alleged. Related Sites
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