As discussed before here, the number of health care fraud indictments and prosecutions continue to increase for all types of health care providers. In addition, in this particular medical supply case it took the government two years from the time the business ceased billing Medicare to obtain an indictment.
On August 21, 2009, Maria A. Aloise, the former owner of Atenas Medical Equipment, Inc. was arrested and had her initial appearance in Miami federal court. A detention hearing has been set for August 24, 2009.
On August 20, 2009, a federal grand jury in Miami returned an eleven-count Indictment charging Ms. Aloise with health care fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1347. According to the Indictment, Ms. Aloise was the owner of Atenas Medical Equipment, Inc., a Hialeah-based company that purportedly provided durable medical equipment (“DME”) to Medicare beneficiaries. From June 8, 2005, through April 4, 2007, Atenas Medical Equipment is alleged to have submitted approximately $1,421,346 in fraudulent claims to Medicare seeking reimbursement for DME items, such as oxygen concentrators and hospital beds, that had not been prescribed by physicians nor provided to Medicare beneficiaries.
An indictment is only an accusation is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial at which the government must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. If convicted, Aloise faces a maximum sentence of ten years’ imprisonment on each of the health care fraud counts.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov/.
Attorney Commentary: Some businesses and individuals fail to understand that the government prosecutors work on old history and the fact that a business is closed, changed its practices or stopped billing Medicare will not prevent an investigation or prosecution from going forward. One of the goals of the government recently has been to lower the loss thresholds for prosecution and ensure that providers have a felony conviction and will be unable to participate in any government funded health programs in the future.
Posted by Tracy Green, Esq. Please email Ms. Green at tgreen@greenassoc.com or call her at 213-233-2260 to schedule a complimentary 30-minute consultation. Ms. Green's office at Green and Associates is located in Los Angeles, California. Tracy Green, is a very experienced California health care fraud attorney, California Durable Medical Equipment attorney, and California DME attorney.
The firm focuses its practice on the representation of licensed professionals, individuals and businesses in civil, business, administrative and criminal proceedings. They have a specialty in representing licensed health care providers and in health care fraud related matters in California and throughout the country. Their website is: http://www.greenassoc.com/
