West Bloomfield, Mich., physician Alan Silber and Detroit resident Hassan Reeves have been convicted by a federal jury for their roles in a $1 million Medicare fraud scheme.
A jury convicted Silber of six counts of healthcare fraud and Reeves of one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and one of conspiracy to pay healthcare kickbacks.
Each healthcare fraud charge and the conspiracy charge carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The charge of conspiracy to pay healthcare kickbacks carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
According to federal investigators, in December 2006, Silber and Reeves began working at the RDM Center, Inc., which existed for the purpose of causing fictitious claims for injection and infusion therapy services to be billed to Medicare. Silber was hired to be the physician at the clinic, investigators said, while Reeves recruited and paid kickbacks to Medicare beneficiaries to come to the clinic.
Up through March 2007, investigators said, Silber, Reeves and others submitted approximately $970,631 in claims to the Medicare program for services supposedly provided by the RDM Center. Medicare paid approximately $649,000 of those claims.
Investigators said the clinic’s owners purchased a small fraction of the medications for which the clinic billed the Medicare program. Medications were prescribed based not on medical need, investigators said, but on what was likely to generate Medicare reimbursements.
Investigators said Reeves recruited people in downtown Detroit and drove them approximately 27 miles to the RDM Center. In exchange for the kickbacks, investigators said, the recruits visited the clinic and signed documents indicating they had received the services billed to Medicare. Kickbacks came in the form of cash and prescriptions for controlled substances.