Is the word out all over the world for foreign docs to head to the Detroit area and set up scams to rip-off American taxpayers? It seems that way considering the number of cases of fraud I’ve reported from Michigan.
See this post about Opiod pushing docs in Michigan because they aren’t just ripping us off financially, but hurting Americans as well.
Metro Detroit physicians found guilty of defrauding Medicare, prescribing unnecessary opioids
Four Metro Detroit physicians were found guilty of health care fraud for their roles in a scheme to administer unnecessary back injections to patients in exchange for prescriptions of medically unnecessary opioids.
Officials said patients were required to get the injections in order to get the prescriptions. Some of the opioids were resold by drug dealers.
Spilios Pappas, 62, of Lucas County, Ohio, Joseph Betro, 59, of Oakland County, Michigan, Tariq Omar, 62, of Oakland County, Michigan, and Mohammed Zahoor, 53, of Oakland County, Michigan, were each found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, and one count of health care fraud.
“These physicians subjected patients to medically unnecessary injections to reap millions in fraudulent billings. Worse still, they incentivized those treatments by offering opioid prescriptions in sky-high dosages meant for the terminally ill,” said Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Today’s verdict shows that the Department will root out physicians who let dollar signs rather than medical need drive their treatment of patients.”
Evidence at trial showed that from 2008 to 2016 Pappas, Betro, Omar and Zahoor worked at numerous medical clinics in Michigan and Ohio, which were operated under the name of the Tri-County Group (Tri-County) and owned by co-conspirator Mashiyat Rashid.
While working at Tri-County they engaged in a scheme to defraud Medicare of over $150 million by billing for medically unnecessary facet joint injections, unnecessary urinary drug screens, home health and more.
Officials said they offered prescriptions of oxycodone 30 mg to patients who were in pain, drug dealers, or opioid addicts. Those patients were forced to submit to unnecessary facet injections for the prescription.
The four defendants were all ranked in the top 25 doctors for dollars paid by Medicare for facet joint injections, even though they only worked a few hours a week. The defendants practice was described during trial as an assembly line, where the four defendants earned anywhere from $1,100 to $3,500 an hour for performing the injections.
Seniors: If you are seeing a doctor, especially for pain medications and you see something suspicious, report it to Medicare.gov. Check your Medicare statements carefully. One friend who was receiving pain meds told me that her doctor had billed Medicare for a much larger amount than she was prescribed. Maybe by mistake? But, best to report anything suspicious!
Editor: Sorry I am behind in posting here at ‘Frauds and Crooks’. That is because Refugee Resettlement Watchhas been taking so much of my time in recent days and weeks.
Unlicensed doctor who treated patients in Morris, Warren pleads guilty
A Long Valley doctor with offices in Morris and Warren counties pleaded guilty on Wednesday to bilking millions of dollars from insurance companies for unlicensed medical care.
How would you like to get medical treatment from this guy, Paramjit Singh?
Parminderjeet S. Sandhu, 66, of Long Valley, and Paramjit Singh, 62, of Ohio, each pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Peter G. Sheridan in Trenton federal court to charges of conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
In 2017, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito filed the charges and said Sandhu, who was licensed to practice in New Jersey, knew Singh’s medical license was suspended, yet still allowed him to care for patients in the three locations he owned and operated under the name Medical Care Associates Family Practice and Urgent Care.
[….]
Records show that from August 2014 through October 2017, Sandhu and Singh billed $2.2 million to Medicare and private health insurance companies for medical services they claimed were provided by Sandhu, but were actually performed by Singh.
“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!
You’ve probably seen the news, but just in case here is the UK Daily Mail on the dreadful news:
ICE blasts ‘dangerously flawed’ NYC sanctuary laws for letting Guyanese illegal immigrant, 21, walk free without bail just weeks before he ‘raped and murdered a 92-year-old woman’
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has blasted New York City’s sanctuary laws, saying the city ignored a federal immigration detainer for a man who went on to be charged with the rape and murder of a 92-year-old woman.
Reeaz Khan, 21, walked free without bail on assault and gun charges in late November, six weeks before he was arrested again on Friday and charged in the horrific murder of Maria Fuertes in Queens.
On Tuesday, ICE released a statement excoriating the city for not cooperating with federal immigration enforcement, saying the murder could have been prevented if its agents had been allowed in November to take custody of Khan, a Guyanese national who is present in the U.S. illegally.
‘New York City’s stance against honoring detainers is dangerously flawed,’ said Thomas R. Decker, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations field office director for New York. ‘It was a deadly choice to release a man on an active ICE detainer back onto the streets after his first arrest.’
There is much more here, but I warn you it is horrible.
So how did someone named Khan come to be living in Guyana?
If you missed my post hereabout how a professor, a female Japanese national, nearly beat to death a fellow female professor at the elite Mt. Holyoke College in Massachusetts, go back now and read it because here is the next installment:
Professor at police-bashing MA college accused of attacking colleague with fire poker, garden shears
SOUTH HADLEY, MA- The campus has made national headlines for students bashing law enforcement. Now the college is once again in the news. This time it’s after a professor there was arrested on charges she tried to murder a colleague.
There’s a funny expression, helped made popular via various t-shirts, that says:
“If you don’t remember, it didn’t happen”.
Seems like that is the excuse being offered when a college professor in Massachusetts was accused and arrested for allegedly attacking a female colleague of hers inside the victim’s home.
Art Professor Rie Hachiyanagi arrested in violent attack at all the women’s college which brags that it is an “inclusive community of students, faculty, and staff in an environment of mutual respect in which all thrive and contribute to the flourishing of others.”
Although, “attacking” might be a bit of an understatement, seeing that the charges levied are attempted murder based upon the extent of the injuries and the weapons claimed to have been used are downright disturbing.
Fifteen miles north of the Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, lies the small town of Leverett which hosts a population of under 2,000 people and rarely has a violent crime recorded on the books year over year.
You can imagine the shock sent through the very small town that hasn’t had even five reported assaults since 2014 to now have someone nearly murdered in their own home.
An art professor from Mount Holyoke College, Rie Hachiyanagi, has been charged with attempted murder and various other crimes after visiting a colleague in the small town of Leverett. According to the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office, she allegedly attacked one of the other staff members from the school with a fire poker and other objects inside their home.
Just this past Friday, Rie Hachiyanagi was arraigned at the Orange District Court and was ordered to be held without bail. As of now, Hachiyanagi has another hearing scheduled on February 4th where the circumstances could change with regard to setting a bail amount.
Now for the part that will make you want to roll on the floor and laugh your head off….
Now let’s flashback to last April, when Western Massachusetts Police Academy recruits were graduating. [And using the college auditorium.—ed]
According to a report from the Daily Wire, students from Mount Holyoke College had been distributing flyer handouts alerting other students to the upcoming graduation. They planned to protest the ceremony.
The graduation was set to take place in the college’s auditorium – and activists around campus were livid.
The school circulated an announcement to make students aware of the large police presence on campus.
[….]
The notice being circulated by student activists was claiming that the administration was welcoming a group synonymous with white supremacy.
The school is “welcoming a large number of armed individuals from a known paramilitary organization with a documented history of white supremacist and patriarchal violence,” the flyer said.
It then named minority groups that have a “reason to be alarmed.
They even said allowing the graduation would make campus unsafe for, “black women, women of color, Black queer and trans folks, queer and trans folks of color, non-Black/POC queer & trans folks, undocumented folks, and disabled folks.”
There is much more, so you must go read it yourself because reporter Gregory Hoyt did a lot of work. However, below is one last comment that had me roaring with laughter alone here in my attic room (I recently moved up from the basement):
Your teachers might be running around preaching about how Trump is evil and that police officers and conservatives are all racist, homophobic hate-mongers, but I can guarantee you that’s more ridiculous than the fact you’re paying $50,000 a year to get a ‘gender studies’ degree.
Professor Hachiyanagi will be back in court on February 4th, so come back for the next installment shortly thereafter.
In case you are wondering, as far as we know, her victim has not been publicly named.
