LOS ANGELES - Twelve Los
Angeles-area residents - including California's second-largest billing group for
chiropractic services, a physician's assistant, and owners of durable medical
equipment and ambulance companies - were arrested today for submitting
more than $22 million in false billings to Medicare, according to the U.S.
Attorney's Office.
The
arrests come as part of a nationwide crackdown by Medicare Fraud Strike Force
operations in eight cities that lead to charges against 89 people, authorities stated.
Those
charged collectively submitted about $233 million in fraudulent claims to
Medicare, according to officials.
All of those 12 defendants from Los Angeles are scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon in federal court. A thirteenth defendant is a fugitive.
Dr. Houshang Pavehzadeh, of the Sylmar Physician Medical Group, allegedly billed Medicare more than $1.7 million for chiropractic treatments he never performed.
During
the scheme, which ran from 2005 through 2012, Dr. Pavehzadeh, 40, of Agoura
Hills, became the second-largest Medicare billing group in California for chiropractic
services - even though he was not in the United States when some of the alleged
services were performed.
In
addition to being charged with health care fraud, Pavehzadeh is charged with
aggravated identity theft related to Medicare beneficiaries whose information
he used to bill Medicare as a part of the scheme.
When
investigators tried to conduct an audit of Pavehzadeh's claims, he falsely
reported to the Los Angeles Police Department that he had been carjacked and
that patient files requested by the auditors had been stolen from his car.
The
Medicare Fraud Strike Force operations are part of the Health Care Fraud
Prevention & Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), a joint initiative announced
in May 2009 between the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and
Human Services to focus their efforts to prevent and deter fraud and enforce
current anti-fraud laws around the country.
