Whistleblower Lawyer & Attorney : LaBovick Law Firm, Florida : Federal False Claims Act, Qui Tam

Nelson Valdes, Pharmacy Owner and Durable Medical Equipment owner, was ordered by  U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga to pay approximately $3.5 million in connection to Medicare false claims. In July of this year, a federal jury in Miami convicted Mr. Valdes of conspiring to defraud Medicare, taking kickbacks and other related charges. This was the third time, Mr. Valdes has been convicted of Medicare fraud. Hopefully he will learn from his mistakes this time around.

According to the Department of Justice, Mr. Valdes conspired with Med-Pro Billing and Unimed Pharmacy to refer paid patients in exchange for half of what Medicare paid for “compounded” aerosols. Compounding is the the process of a pharmacist making medication as opposed to a pharmaceutical manufacturer.

Mr. Valdes will receive 12 years in prison for Medicare fraud, according to Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta of the Southern District of Florida.

This verdict marks another win for our diligent medicare fraud strike force. Since March 2007, the strike force team has indicted approximately 80 cases and 120 defendants in Miami-Dade County alone.  The Medicare fraud strike team deserves a big round of applause.  Their hard work helps the government recoup millions of dollars for qui tam or false claims involving medicare fraud.

Click Here to read more on this case from the Department of Justice.

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A recent crackdown on heath care fraud in Miami, a health care fraud hot spot, yielded 38 arrests. The accused were charged with billing Medicare for prosthetic limbs, drugs, and air mattresses among other items. They submitted $142 million in bills for unnecessary or nonexistent equipment and supplies and used funds for personal items such as a $200,000 Rolls Royce.

The Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt, visited several of the businesses late last year and described his shock at peering into office fronts in a Miami area strip mall and seeing little more than a chair and a few pieces of equipment on the wall. He called the fraud "blatant."

According to a recent release from the Department of Justice, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force is a joint task force of federal prosecutors supervised by the Criminal Divisions Fraud Section in Washington and the Office of U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta of the Southern District of Florida.

Let's hope there was a whistleblower involved in these arrests and revelation of the $142 million in over-billing.  It is always a good thing to have a private citizen act as a whistleblower and receive recognition for their efforts in the fight against Medicare and health care fraud. It is good to know that we have such a strong task force in our own backyard.

Click here to read more from the Department of Justice and the Washington Post on this Southern Crackdown on Health Care Fraud.

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