by Ben Vernia | March 12th, 2010
The Department of Justice announced on March 11 that a federal jury convicted a Farmington Hills, Michigan physician, Jose Castro-Ramirez, of 13 counts in a $18.3 million scheme to defraud the Medicare program. According to the Department:
Evidence at trial established that beginning in late 2003, the defendant, a physician licensed in the state of Michigan, entered into an agreement with co-conspirator Suresh Chand to defraud the Medicare program. Chand owned and controlled several companies operating in Warren, Mich., including Continental Rehab Services Inc. (CRS) and Pacific Management Services Inc. (PM), which purported to provide physical and occupational therapy services to Medicare beneficiaries. In reality, as the evidence showed, Chand and his associates at CRS and PM created fictitious therapy files, appearing to document physical and occupational therapy services provided to Medicare beneficiaries, when in fact no such services had taken place. The fictitious services reflected in the files were billed to Medicare through sham Medicare providers controlled by Chand and his co-conspirators.
One of the inducements the conspirators offered to Medicare beneficiaries was prescriptions for controlled substances, the Department reported. Castro-Ramirez’s co-conspirator, Chand, had pleaded guilty earlier.
