Atlanta man, Florida woman plead guilty to conspiracy to defraud Medicare, USDOJ says
An Atlanta man and a Florida woman entered federal guilty pleas for a conspiracy to buy and sell fake doctors’ orders and defraud Medicare, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
At the center of their conspiracy were four durable medical equipment companies, including Liberty Medical DME in Atlanta, where defendants Brett Weiner of Atlanta and Valerie Desalvo of Boca Raton, Fla. got kickback payments in exchange for patient leads, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
However, USDOJ said Weiner and Desalvo received bribes from Liberty Medical DME, and Medihealth Medical Solutions in Mississippi, for those leads, which included providing Medicare beneficiaries’ names, Medicare numbers, diagnoses, pain levels, and primary care physicians’ information.
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Weiner and Desalvo owned and operated Laboratory Marketing Services, LLC, in Boca Raton, according to justice officials.
Prosecutors said Weiner and Desalvo “bought and sold signed doctors’ orders from Nagaindra Srivastav and his company B2B Apps Solutions, LLC in Tampa, Florida, which they sold to DME companies,” adding that a large part of the doctors’ orders the two purchased had “forged signatures or purported approvals of physicians or other health care providers whose names and professional identifying information were used without their authorization or knowledge.”
An FBI agent involved in the case said it was “all about the money,” when it comes to healthcare fraud.
“Hopefully this case and the work of our special agents with their financial expertise will be a deterrent to anyone thinking about abusing federal healthcare programs to line their own pockets,” Keri Farley, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta, said.
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USDOJ said Weiner and Desalvo caused about $150,000 in false and fraudulent Medicare claims, generating about $715,000 in payments for braces procured through illegal kickback payments and bribes, ineligible for Medicare reimbursement.
“Durable Medical Equipment fraud schemes involve much more than simply bilking the Medicare system,” U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan said in a statement. “These schemes exploit our most vulnerable citizens in the name of personal greed, and our office is committed to finding and prosecuting those involved.”
Both Weiner and Desalvo pled guilty to a single count of conspiracy to pay healthcare kickbacks. They’ll be back in court for sentencing on Feb. 8, 2024, according to USDOJ.
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