601 charged in opioid cases
124 of them in S. Florida as feds crack down on ‘staggering’ fraud
Federal authorities have charged 601 people across the country, including 124 in South Florida, in what they called the largest crackdown in history on health care fraud.
South Florida retains its notorious ranking of two decades as a leading region for such cases. Prosecutors in the Southern District of Florida filed charges against 20 percent of the total de59 fendants announced and said they were responsible for $337 million in false billings.
“The numbers are really staggering,” Benjamin Greenberg, U.S. attorney for the southern district of Florida said Thursday at a Miami news conference.
Nationwide, various schemes involved $2 billion in losses because of fraud. Among those facing prosecution were 76 doctors, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
In South Florida, defendants in cases were charged in May and June.
Illegal activities occurred around substance abuse treatment; distribution of opioids, money laundering, check cashing and billings to Medicare, prosecutors said.
Sober homes and treatment centers in Broward and Palm Beach counties have been a focus of investigators, Greenberg said.
“Most of the residential sober
homes and treatment facilities abide by the law and help people. But unfortunately there are small minorities that don’t, who are engaged in a particularly pernicious type of fraud that can actually cause physical harm to those most in need of treatment,” he said.
Shimon Richmond, special agent in charge of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General in Miami, said, “We can’t investigate and prosecute our way out of this. ... It’s addressing the mindset that makes fraud OK throughout the South Florida environment, that looks at kickbacks as an acceptable way to run a business or to make money or supplement someone’s income in a difficult situation.”
Among the 59 cases described by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Florida:
Dr. Arman Abovyan of Boca Raton, former medical director of Reflections Treatment Center in Margate and Journey to Recovery in Boca Raton, and Tina Marie Barbuto, of Boca Raton, a licensed mental health counselor and former clinical director at Reflections Treatment Center, were indicted this month with conspiracy to distribute and dispense controlled substances, and two counts, distribution of controlled substances, outside the course of medical practice, prosecutors said.
Kenneth Rivera-Kolb, a former physician from Largo, was indicted this month for conspiracy to distribute controlled substances in connection with his former role as medical director at Angel’s Recovery, a substance treatment facility in Palm Beach County.
Christopher Liva of Boca Raton, Elaina Liva of Pompano Beach, former owners of Pop’s Pharmacy in Deerfield Beach, and pharmacist Stephen Chalker of Wellington were indicted this month on one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud. The pharmacy submitted false claims to Medicare, TRICARE and Medicaid for compounded drugs, prescriptions and expensive pain and scar creams that weren’t necessary or provided, prosecutors said. Insurance programs paid nearly $5 million on fraudulent claims.
Berto Arias Carrasco of Pembroke Pines was charged this month with conspiracy to commit health care fraud. Prosecutors allege he and a coconspirator paid kickbacks to recruiters who referred patients to New Life Home HealthCare Inc. in Miami. Medicare paid over $15 million in fraudulent claims, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
Eric Snyder of Delray Beach, an owner of sober home Halfway There Florida LLC/A Safe Place, and Real Life Recovery Delray LLC, a substance abuse treatment center, was indicted along with an executive of Real Life Recovery and two patient brokers. Charged with conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud among other offenses, the facilities submitted claims of more than $58 million and insurance plans paid about $20 million, prosecutors said.
Anthony Jackson of Lantana was sentenced to 42 months in prison after pleading guilty on June 21 to conspiracy to commit health care fraud. A former certified addiction counselor at Reflections Treatment Center in Margate and owner of Pantherview Sober Home in Boynton Beach, he was ordered to pay $5,122,886 in restitution.
Kenneth Bailynson of West Palm Beach, owner of Good Decisions Sober Living in West Palm Beach along with employees Stephanie Curran of Lake Worth, Dr. Mark Agresti of Palm Beach and Matthew Noel of Louisville, Ky. were indicted this month, charged with conspiracy to commit healthcare and wire fraud and money laundering. Prosecutors allege patients were illegally recruited; kickbacks were paid and health care benefit programs were billed for urine testing that was not necessary. The business submitted claims of approximately $106 million and received payments of about $31 million.
Evelio Suarez of Miramar was charged this month with conspiracy to commit money laundering, bribing a bank employee and obstructing justice. He allegedly controlled three check cashing stores in Hialeah that cashed nearly $500 million in checks. Checks were allegedly funded by heathcare, mortgage and ID theft tax refund frauds. Checks had been written to people who did not appear at the stores,had their identities stolen or were paid to flee to Cuba, prosecutors said.
Also Thursday in Washington, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the health care fraud and opioid crackdown with U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar and other officials.
Much of the fraud is linked to the opioid crisis.
“In many cases, doctors, nurses, and pharmacists take advantage of people suffering from drug addiction in order to line their pockets,” Sessions said.
“The perpetrators really are despicable and greedy people,” Azar said.
There are an average of 115 opioid-related overdose deaths each day, Greenberg said, attributing the number to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In South Florida in 2016, 596 people died of opioid overdoses in Palm Beach County and 582 in Broward County, according to medical examiners’ statistics.
Staff writers Juan Ortega and Skyler Swisher and New York Daily News writer Joe Dziemianowicz contributed to this report.