“Patients were put through unneeded anxiety and pain so the doctor could make millions! “
(US Attorney Ryan K. Patrick)
The Justice Department calls what Jorge Zamora-Quezada did “heinous.”
It didn’t take long to figure out that the convicted Texas doc was from Mexico, see here.
So much for those ‘new Americans’ who are in our country for a better life! This one sure had a better life (for awhile) as he supposedly benefited the US economy (not!).
Texas Doctor Found Guilty for Role in $325 Million Health Care Fraud Scheme Involving False Diagnoses of Life-Long Diseases
A federal jury found a Texas rheumatologist guilty today for his role in a $325 million health care fraud scheme in which he falsely diagnosed patients with life-long diseases and treated them with toxic medications on the basis of that false diagnosis.
Following a 25-day trial, Jorge Zamora-Quezada, M.D., 63, of Mission, Texas, was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, seven counts of health care fraud, and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice. Zamora-Quezada is expected to be sentenced on March 27, 2020, by U.S. District Judge Ricardo Hinojosa of the Southern District of Texas, who presided over the trial.
Attorney Michael Watts holds a poster while talking about charges against Dr. Jorge Zamora-Quezada at a news conference Monday, May 21, 2018, at the Hidalgo County Courthouse in Edinburg. You will see in this story that he was raising sons to follow in his footsteps by becoming doctors too! https://www.themonitor.com/2018/06/15/embattled-doctors-son-no-bond-left-patients-in-limbo/
“The conduct in this case was heinous. Dr. Zamora-Quezada falsely diagnosed vulnerable patients, including the young, elderly, and disabled, with life-long diseases requiring invasive treatments that those patients did not in fact need,” said Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Today’s guilty verdict shows that the Department of Justice will work tirelessly to protect the public from unscrupulous medical professionals who greedily line their own pockets at the expense of their patients’ health and safety.”
“As evidenced by the length of trial, this was a massive investigation into one of the worst medical fraudsters,” said. U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Patrick of the Southern District of Texas.“Unnecessary medical tests to create millions of dollars of false billing is as bad as it gets. Patients were put through unneeded anxiety and pain so the doctor could make millions. He won’t need it where he’s headed.”
“The guilty verdict against Dr. Zamora-Quezada ensures he will pay a steep price for his unthinkably callous and cruel criminal conduct, committed for the sheer sake of greed,” said Special Agent in Charge CJ Porter of the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS-OIG). “The abhorrent conduct in this case, which resulted in harm to unsuspecting patients, only serves to deepen the dedication of HHS-OIG agents and our law enforcement partners to pursue, prosecute, and exclude bad actors in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.”
“Rarely do we see such an egregious case of health care fraud, where so many patients received years of unnecessary and debilitating treatments, which were rendered out of sheer greed,” said Special Agent in Charge Christopher Combs of the FBI’s San Antonio Field Office. “The FBI is committed to seeking justice for each and every victim who suffered immeasurable harm at the hands of these defendants. The public deserves to be able to seek medical care without fear of being falsely diagnosed and given toxic medications they don’t need. We will relentlessly pursue those who would enrich themselves at the expense of those most vulnerable in our community.”
According to the evidence presented at trial, Zamora-Quezada falsely diagnosed a large number of patients with rheumatoid arthritis, a life-long, incurable disease – and treated them with toxic, medically unnecessary medications like chemotherapy drugs on the basis of that false diagnosis.
Many patients, including patients as young as 13, suffered physical and emotional harm as a result of the false diagnoses, chemotherapy injections, hours’ long intravenous infusions, and other excessive, repetitive and profit-driven medical procedures. The evidence further showed that to obstruct and mislead a federal grand jury investigation, Zamora-Quezada falsified medical records. Zamora-Quezada operated medical practices throughout South Texas and San Antonio. He traveled to his various offices on his private jet and in his Maserati.
There must be ads worldwide—become a doctor and go to the US to rip off dumb Americans. I hope you are checking your medical professionals carefully.
By the way, I think Texas is giving the frauds and crooks in Michigan and Florida a run for their money!
A federal appeals court affirmed a lower court decision earlier this week that seeks to send a message to medical practitioners who are clearly seeking financial gain at the expense of their patients’ health.
The original court ruling against Dr.Aria Sabit was in 2017 (before I began writing ‘Frauds and Crooks‘ to highlight cases like this where ‘new Americans,’ supposedly here to follow the American dream ripped us off, or in some cases killed us). Hey, Michael Bloomberg, so much for immigrant entrepreneurs!
A Birmingham neurosurgeon’s federal appeal failed, leaving him to serve nearly 20 years in prison because of his role in a $2.8 million insurance fraud scheme involving unnecessary spinal surgeries.
Aria Sabit also must deal with a lifetime of supervision and pay nearly $2 million in restitution because of the upheld sentence.
A three-judge U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the 2017 sentence on Monday. Dec. 16.
“After recounting the facts underlying Sabit’s conviction, the district court discussed the … factors and then handed down the sentence,” the opinion read. “That shows the district court took a holistic approach to justifying the sentence.
“And that holistic approach didn’t lack an adequate explanation: the district court spoke at length about Sabit’s ‘horrific criminal acts upon vulnerable and defenseless human beings’ and then explained why the sentence was necessary (1) to protect the public and (2) to deter other criminal conduct.”
The 11-page opinion concludes by saying the lower district court did not commit “reversible” error during Sabit’s criminal proceedings or when imposing his sentence.
“Thus, we affirm,” the opinion concluded.
Prior to his guilty plea and sentencing, Sabit owned and operated the Michigan Brain and Spine Physicians Group with several metro Detroit locations.
Sabit admitted to convincing more than a dozen patients to undergo spinal fusion surgeries that he never performed, causing serious bodily harm in some cases.
“He told patients they needed spinal surgery,” the just-released opinion detailed. “Sabit then operated on the patients and told them (falsely) that he had inserted the agreed-upon medical device.
“Sabit also falsified his operative reports to make the patients think he had put the spinal devices in place.”
The message to you, dear readers, please, please carefully check out your doctors. We have American bad docs, but honestly based on cases I’ve been reading about (so many in Michigan!) a lot of foreign-born docs are not here to help you get well.
Endnote:I encourage those of you interested in the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program to go over toRefugee Resettlement Watch every few days, because a lot is going on following the President’s reform initiative launched in September.
Editor: As you know I have been deep in the weeds of the President’s offer to local elected officials and state governors to determine if they want to receive refugees later in 2020. It is frankly a bureaucratic morass and I needed a break from it so I had a look at some ‘frauds and crooks’ news this morning.
Please visit Refugee Resettlement Watch because there are new posts there every day like this one:Appomattox County, Virginia says no thanks to refugees, likely first in the nation county to say NO!
For a change, this is really disturbing news for a whole host of reasons.
Before getting to the story that you may have seen because it was fairly widely reported, learn what a Brazilian butt lift entails.See here.
I sure hope our tax dollars in no way support this foolish (deadly!) medical procedure.
From theUK Daily Mail(where photos are always the best):
Botched cut-rate operations at plastic surgery clinics operated by FELONS in Florida cost 13 women their lives – but state law can do nothing to close down the lethal businesses
At least 13 women have died after undergoing plastic surgery at Florida clinics founded by felons, a new investigation reveals.
They came for discounted butt lifts and tummy tucks from surgeons in world-renowned South Beach, Florida.
But these women were left with complications that cost them their lives, after operations that were performed by surgeons hired by for felons, USA Today’s investigation revealed.
Dr Osakatukei Omulepu had failed his board exams multiple times, and had never been board certified in plastic surgery, says the Daily Mail.
It dug into the sordid histories of four clinics founded by people had been convicted of crimes – mostly financial ones – but were allowed to run cosmetic surgery shops that crowded patients in and cut corners to make more money more quickly.
The clinics, where women died of fat embolisms, deadly mixtures of sedatives and puncture wounds to organs, were cited for these deaths and for dirty operating rooms.
Yet they were never shut down. Blindspots in regulatory oversight and hamstrung lawmakers allowed these facilities to continue operating despite the littany of problems – in one case, even while the owner was waiting for his prison sentence to start.
[….]
Juan Hernandes was convicted in a $1.2 million Medicare billing fraud case while running Spectrum Aesthetics
Juan Hernandesco-founded Spectrum Aesthetics in 2012. He and his business partner, Evelyn Parrado werecharged with fraudulently billing $1.2 million to Medicare for drugs from the pharmacy they ran together.
Under the impression that Spectrum was staffed and run by board certified surgeons, the court allowed Hernandes to continue to operate the clinic.
He employed and oversaw the physicians there, including Dr Osakatukei Omulepu, who had failed his board exams multiple times, and never been board certified in plastic surgery.
Yet the unqualified surgeon performed Brazilian butt lifts, the most dangerous cosmetic operation.
During two such operations, he punctured or stabbed organs including the liver and small intestine.
A surgical sponge was left inside Porche Campbell, 40, when she had a procedure there.
Nicola Mason, 46, came to Spectrum from Maryland for a Brazilian butt lift.
But, a complaint she filed against Dr Omulepu claims he performed a tummy tuck – the wrong surgery – on her, instead.
And the unwanted tummy tuck she got left Mason with large scars on the side of her abdomen.
Dr Omulepu’s records claim that he determined that Mason wasn’t a good candidate for butt lift, according to USA TODAY, and that the two instead agreed upon her tummy tuck.
Last year, Adianet Galvan visited New Life Plastic Surgery for the same risky procedure: a Brazilian butt lift.
She suffered the same fate countless others have under the knife. Galvan died of a fat embolism, according to USA Today’s analysis of her autopsy records.
‘I never thought my daughter would come to this country and die at the age of 30,’ her mother, Arelys Gonzalez told USA Today. [Were these women in the country legally?—ed]
