Tag: Health Care

BOSTON – David Santana, owner of Conclave Media and Nationwide Health Advocates, will plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud in connection with a $44 million telemedicine fraud scheme involving medically unnecessary durable medical equipment, including orthotics such as back and knee braces, and genetic tests. According to the charging documents, between January 2018 and August 2021, Santana, through his companies Conclave and Nationwide, entered into business...

NEW YORK – Alexandra Stchaslivteseva, 52, of New York has been arrested for allegedly offering and paying illegal health care kickbacks and money laundering, resulting in Medicare paying more than $17.3 million in false claims. She allegedly offered and paid kickbacks and bribes to several purported telemedicine companies and marketing companies in exchange for completed doctor orders of medically unnecessary orthotic braces and continuous glucose monitors for Medicare beneficiaries. Stchastlivtseva...

NASHVILLE – The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee has charged Tache “Gabe” Georgescu, 45, and Natalia Georgescu, 38, both of Laguna Niguel, Calif., owners and operators of now defunct Lowry Medical Supply, Inc., in Nashville with conspiracy to commit health care fraud and paying illegal kickbacks. According to the charging document, in November 2017, the Georgescus purchased Lowry Medical, and in 2018, they purchased three other DME companies located...

ST. PAUL, Minn. – 3M will spin off its health care division to create a standalone business focused on wound care, oral care, health care IT and biopharma filtration.  The company says the health care division, with approximately $8.6 billion in sales in 2021, will be a diversified technology leader with a deep and diverse portfolio of trusted brands, global capabilities and leadership in attractive end-market segments. It says the move better positions the division to deliver industry-leading...

WASHINGTON – The Council for Quality Respiratory Care in a statement today encouraged CMS to reconsider eliminating the CMN for home oxygen therapy.  The CQRC, a coalition of the nation’s largest respiratory providers and manufacturers, says doing that would replace “objective testing ordered by a patient’s physician for the subjective decision-making of Medicare contractors.”  “We are highly supportive of allowing acute patients to receive oxygen...

WASHINGTON – The Department of Justice opened 1,148 new criminal health care fraud investigations in fiscal year 2020, according to an annual report published this week. Federal prosecutors filed criminal charges in 412 cases involving 679 defendants. A total of 440 defendants were convicted of health care fraud-related crimes. The DOJ also opened 1,079 new civil health care fraud investigations and had 1,498 civil health care fraud matters pending at the end of fiscal year 2020. Investigative...

DALLAS – A federal jury has convicted Dallas area owners and operators of two DME companies of one count of conspiracy to defraud the United states and to pay and receive health care kickbacks, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. According to evidence presented at trial, Leah Hagan and Michael Hagen, the owners and operators of Metro DME Supply and Ortho Pain Solutions, paid a fixed rate per DME item in exchange for prescriptions and paperwork completed by telemedicine doctors...

WASHINGTON - The Senate, in a bipartisan 78-17 vote, has confirmed Sylvia Mathews Burwell to replace Kathleen Sebelius as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), according to news reports. Burwell has been the director of the Office of Management and Budget since April 2013. Prior to that, she was president of the Walmart Foundation and president of the Global Development Program of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, according to reports. Though responsible for 11 agencies...

My editor occasionally groans when she sees I am doing an update on the home infusion industry's efforts to get Medicare coverage for their equipment and services. She supports the legislation, don't get me wrong. But, it's been a long battle and I am sure that she sometimes feels like she's rereading the same story. But, the HME industry at-large could take a page from the National Home Infusion Association's government playbook. The Medicare Home Infusion Coverage act has...