124 in region charged with health fraud
Arrests include doctors, clinics in area cities hit hard by the opioid crisis.
MIAMI — In what U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions called “the largest health care fraud takedown in history,” federal authorities have charged 601 people — including 124 in South Florida — with more than $2 billion in fraud.
“These are despicable crimes,” Sessions said Thursday at a news conference outlining a nationwide takedown that included 76 doctors, 23 pharmacists and 19 nurses.
“We are sending a clear message to criminals across county. We will find you. We will bring you to justice. You will pay a very high price for what you have done,” he said.
In South Florida, the arrests include doctors and clinics in many Palm Beach County communities hit hard by the opioid crisis — from Delray Beach and Boca Raton to Wellington and West Palm Beach and Palm Beach Gardens. The offenses cover participation in various fraud schemes involving more than $337 million in false billings for services including home health care and pharmacy fraud.
“In many cases, doctors, nurses and pharmacists take advantage
of addiction people suffering in order from to drug line their pockets,” Sessions said.
“Health care fraud is a betrayal of vulnerable patients, and often it is theft from the taxpayer,” Sessions said.
On Wednesday, federal prosecutors unsealed indictments against two Palm Beach County drug treatment oper- ators: Ken Bailynson, owner of the defunct Good Decisions Sober Living in West
Palm Beach, and Eric Snyder, owner of the defunct Real Life Recovery and Half-way
There in Delray Beach. Both face charges of money laundering and health care fraud.
Six others affiliated with the treatment centers were also indicted, including West Palm Beach psychiatrist Dr.
Mark Agresti.
Bailynson has been in cus- tody since his arrest Wednesday. He is scheduled to appear in federal court today, where a judge will determine whether Bailynson should be released while his case is pending.
Agresti appeared before a federal magistrate after his arrest on Wednesday. Bond was set at $250,000.
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi said Thursday that the nationwide crackdown included the arrests of Stephen Chalker, 42, of Wellington; Christopher Liva, 39, of Boca Raton; and Elaina Liva,
66, of Pompano Beach — all for conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
Chalker is also charged with three counts of health care fraud. According to the indictment, the Livas owned and operated Pop’s Phar- macy LLC where Chalker worked as a pharmacist. The defendants allegedly submitted false and fraudu- lent claims worth $5 million to Medicare, TRICARE and Medicaid for compounded drugs and other prescrip- tion medications, including expensive pain and scar creams, deemed not med- ically necessary or never provided.
The government is seek- ing forfeiture of nearly $1.5 million from Chalker and the Livases. The phone number listed been disconnected. for the pharmacy has
Other indictments involvi ng Palm Beach County included two doctors involved in Reflections Treatment Center in Margate and Journey to Recovery in Boca Raton. The owner of the two facilities, Kenny Chatman, already is serving a 27-year prison sentence for fraud. Another defendant connected with Chatman and Reflections Treatment Center is Anthony Jackson of Lantana. The program director was one of Chatman’s toplevel employees. Prosecutors say Jackson was sentenced last week to 3½ years in prison and ordered to pay more than $5 million in restitution. After he left Chatman’s establish- ment, a 26-year-old strug- gling addict overdosed and died at Jackson’s Panther- view Sober Home in Boyn- ton Beach. Dr. Arman Abovyan, 44, and Tina Marie Barbuto, 39, both of Boca Raton, were charged with illegal distribu- tion of controlled substances outside the course of medical practice. The drugs included tranquilizers and amphetamines, prosecutors claim. Barbuto worked as a licensed counselor for the treatment centers. Lawrence Weisberg, 51, of Boca Raton, was charged with money laundering in connection with proceeds he received from Smart Lab LLC, a clinical lab in Palm Beach Gardens. Carlos Garcia, 51, of Lake Worth, was charged with conspiracy to commit health care fraud and nine counts of health care fraud through American Drugs Pharmacy in Lake Worth and two phar- macies in Miami. Dr. Kenneth Rivera-Kolb, 66, was charged with a count of conspiracy in connection to his work as medical director of Angel’s Recovery, a treatment facility in Delray Beach. Prosecutors in May called Angel’s Recovery one of the biggest scams in the coun- ty’s illicit sober home indus- try. The father and daughter — Alan Bostom and Tara Jasperson — who operated the facility were sentenced to 2½ and 6½ years, respectively, in federal prison and ordered to repay $4 million they pock- eted by duping insurance companies.
Rivera-Kolb had his medical license suspended in February 2015, but continued to prescribed drugs at Angel’s Recovery, according to a December 2015 administrative complaint filed with the Florida Department of Health. He wrote 38 suspect prescriptions for tranquilizers and other drugs in a three-month period following his one-year suspension to practice medicine, the complaint stated. His license was revoked last year.
“This is the most fraud, the most defendants, and the most doctors ever charged in a single operation,” Sessions said.
“Some of our most trusted medical professionals look at their patients — vulnerable people suffering from addiction — and they see dollar signs,” he said.
The Justice Department also brought charges against medical professionals it said were contributing to the country’s opioid epidemic by participating in the unlawful distribution of prescription painkillers.
In one case, a doctor allegedly distributed 2.2 million unnecessary doses of drugs like oxycodone and fentanyl, allegedly defrauding Medicare of more than $112 million, Sessions said.
According to the CDC, approximately 115 Americans die every day of an opioid-related overdose. In 2016, 42,000 people in the United States died from opioid overdoses, including 596 in Palm Beach County.
The crackdown comes months after local government agencies — including Palm Beach County, Delray Beach and the state of Florida — filed lawsuits against drugmakers and distributors, accusing them of fueling the epidemic.
“It takes a special kind of person to prey on the sick and vulnerable as happened in many of these health care fraud schemes,” said IRS Criminal Investigation Deputy Chief Eric Hylton.