Six Miami-Dade County residents have been indicted on a $10 million Medicare fraud scheme, operated out of Midway Medical, a Miami clinic that purported to specialize in treating HIV/AIDS patients.
Carmen Lourdes del Cueto, MD, Roberto Rodriguez, MD, Carlos Garrido, MD, Gonzalo Nodarse, Alexis Carrazana, and Alexis Dagnesses, were all indicted by a grand jury in Miami on Feb. 12, 2009, for conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
Del Cueto, Rodriguez, Garrido and Nodarse were also charged with conspiracy to launder healthcare fraud proceeds, and three counts each of substantive money laundering. The indictment seeks the forfeiture of assets from all named defendants.
According to reports, the three physicians - del Cueto, Rodriguez and Garrido - were part-owners of Midway Medical. Midway Medical purported to be an infusion clinic that specialized in providing infusions and injections to HIV-positive patients. The physicians allegedly ordered medically unnecessary infusions and injections, and falsified medical records between September 2002 and June 2005.
The indictment also alleges that medical assistants Nodarse and Carrazana assisted the physicians in falsifying the medical records to make it appear that the services were needed. As part of the scheme, Dagnesses is said to have manipulated HIV-positive blood samples in order to obtain laboratory reports indicating that the patients had illnesses that they in fact did not have.
Del Cueto, Rodriguez, Garrido and Nodarse are further charged with distributing the proceeds of the fraud through a series of financial transactions involving more that $10,000 in tainted funds.
Medicare paid more than $4.8 million on those fraudulent claims submitted by Midway Medical.
Photo by (le)doo obtained under Creative Common license.