Sep 3 2011
Officials in Puerto Rico file over a dozen indictments for health care fraud, as the Office of the Inspector General seeks Medicaid fraud fugitives.
The Associated Press/CBS News: 13 Accused Of Health Care Fraud In Puerto Rico
Thirteen people including three doctors have been indicted for conspiracy to commit health care fraud, according to a statement Thursday from the U.S. Attorney's Office. The first indictment accuses Jose Lopez Diaz of charging Medicare more than half a million dollars for services never rendered at a medical center where he never worked. Lopez also is accused of billing Medicare for a procedure he claimed he performed on female patients that can only be done on men, prosecutors say. Also charged is Lopez's brother, Carlos Lopez Diaz, a dentist whom prosecutors say provided his brother with names and Medicare beneficiary numbers of his patients. Two daughters of Jose Lopez Diaz also are accused of filling out fake claim forms and receiving gifts from their father as rewards (9/1).
Detroit Free Press: Do You Know These Top 10 Michigan Medicaid Fraud Fugitives?
A Medicare fraud fugitive hotline started in February wants leads on 170 people believed to have fled the country to avoid jail or prosecution. Ten of those fugitives are from Detroit and are accused of fraud in receiving more than $42 million. Some are believed to be living in Pakistan and India (Anstett, 9/1).
 This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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