HEALTH CARE CLINIC OWNERS PLEAD GUILTY FOR ROLES IN $2.5 MILLION MEDICARE FRAUD

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Owners of Orlando Health Care Clinic Plead Guilty to Engaging in $2.5 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme

Husband and wife owners of an Orlando health care clinic pleaded guilty today to engaging in a $2.5 million health care fraud scheme.

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney A. Lee Bentley III of the Middle District of Florida and Special Agent in Charge Shimon R. Richmond of the Florida Region of U.S. Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) made the announcement.

Juan Carlos Delgado, 58, and Nereyda Infante, 48, both of Orlando, Florida, each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud before U.S. District Judge Paul G. Byron of the Middle District of Florida.  Sentencing hearings are scheduled for Sept. 29, 2015.

Delgado and Infante owned and operated several health care clinics in Orlando, Florida, under variations of the name Prestige Medical.  According to admissions made in connection with their guilty pleas, between February 2012 and September 2014, the defendants fraudulently billed Medicare approximately $2.5 million on behalf of the Prestige clinics for services that never were administered.  Specifically, Delgado and Infante admitted to billing Medicare over $1.2 million for pentostatin, an expensive anticancer chemotherapeutic medication used to treat Leukemia despite never administering any pentostatin.

The case is being investigated by HHS-OIG and was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, under the supervision of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Middle District of Florida.  The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Andrew H. Warren of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.

Since its inception in March 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, now operating in nine cities across the country, has charged over 2,300 defendants who collectively have billed the Medicare program for over $7 billion.  In addition, the HHS Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the HHS-OIG, are taking steps to increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers.