Government launches healthcare fraud list

Medicare and Medicaid fraud costs tax payers more than $60 billion dollars per year, sothe government is seeking help from the public to catch more than 170 fugitive fraudsters. So now the government launched on its website a fraud list. One whom is already featured is Leonard Nawafor, convicted a couple of years ago in Los Angeles of billing Medicare more than $1 million for motorized wheelchairs that beneficiaries didn’t need. One who got a chair, was a blind man who couldn’t see to operate it. Nawfor disappeared before his sentencing.

“We’re looking for new ways to press the issue of catching fugitives,” said Gerald Roy, deputy inspector general for investigations at the Health and Human Services Department. “If someone walks into a bank and steals $3,000 or $4,000, it would be all over the newspaper. These people manage to do it from a less high profile position, but they still have a tremendous impact.” Fox News

The price of motorized scooters as they are also called, can run between $1,000 and $7,000, but Nawfor’s scam was on the low end when compared to others who made the most-wanted list. Also, Sisters Clara and Caridad Guilarte allegedly submitted $9 million to Medicare in false and fraudulent claims for pricey infusion drugs that were never provided to patients. They also stand accused of offering cash and other rewards for beneficiaries to visit their clinic in Dearborn, Mich., and sign forms that said they received services that they never got.

Scammers “often utilize their ties to a particular community,” said Roy. “They take advantage of ethnic communities based on language barriers or lack of knowledge about how the Medicare system works. These folks are exploiting low-income communities.” Fox News

At the top of this list is are Miami brothers Carlos, Luis and Jose Benitez, who own string of medical clinics, they allegedly scammed Medicare out of $119 million by billing for costly HIV drugs that patients never received or did not need. Authorities say they bought hotels, helicopters and boats before fleeing to Cuba.

Meanwhile Roy hopes this newest list will raise awareness about the importance of combating health care fraud. Medicare and Medicaid, which provide care for about 100 million Americans, are in serious financial trouble and can’t afford to be hemorrhaging tens of billions a year because of fraud.