http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog/medicare/index.html http://media.miamiherald.com/images/logos/rss_sitelogo.gif http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog/medicare/index.html 140 25 News, sports and entertainment from MiamiHerald.com en-us Copyright 2009 MiamiHerald.com South Florida's Medicare Racket 60 Sat, 21 Nov 2009 08:46:49 EST http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss McClatchy Interactive's PubSys miamifeedback@miamiherald.com http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog/medicare/story/1196209.html http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog/medicare/story/1196209.html Fri, 21 Aug 2009 16:52 EDT Almost anyone can operate a Medicare-licensed equipment supply company -- even a convicted murderer.<p/> Guillermo Denis Gonzalez, convicted of second-degree murder in 1992 and released from prison in 2004, bought a Medicare-licensed healthcare equipment company two years later. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog/medicare/story/636777.html http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog/medicare/story/636777.html Mon, 11 Aug 2008 03:01 EDT For years, Medicare has begged Congress to help stop the loss of billions of dollars to healthcare scams from Miami to Los Angeles. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog/medicare/story/636745.html http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog/medicare/story/636745.html Mon, 11 Aug 2008 03:01 EDT The dollar might not be worth much these days, but it can go pretty far in the fight against healthcare fraud, experts say. For every $2 million invested in anti-fraud efforts annually, a health insurer can realize $17 million in prevented losses, savings and recoveries, according to the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association, a private-public partnership based in Washington. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog/medicare/story/629378.html http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog/medicare/story/629378.html Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:24 EDT The Benitez brothers were masters of Medicare fraud, prosecutors say. They spent their Medicare millions on Mediterranean-style homes, apartments, hotels, boats, a helicopter, even a water park -- all in the resort area of Bavaro, Dominican Republic, court records show. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog/medicare/story/629394.html http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog/medicare/story/629394.html Tue, 05 Aug 2008 03:01 EDT He dropped out of high school in ninth grade. Got busted for carrying a load of cocaine. And dabbled in marijuana grow houses. Angel Castillo Jr. finally found his criminal calling as an entrepreneur in South Florida's multibillion-dollar underground industry -- Medicare fraud. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog/medicare/story/628288.html http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog/medicare/story/628288.html Mon, 04 Aug 2008 03:01 EDT The men show up on foot, on bicycles, by van or car. Before entering the sky-blue door at the rear of the vast office plaza, they carefully look around to make sure no one is watching them go in. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog/medicare/story/628285.html http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog/medicare/story/628285.html Mon, 04 Aug 2008 03:01 EDT The sign on Suite No. 315 says ``Open 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.'' But the Hialeah medical equipment business -- suspected of billing the U.S. government a few million dollars in bogus Medicare claims -- is locked on a recent weekday visit by federal agents. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog/medicare/story/628351.html http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog/medicare/story/628351.html Mon, 04 Aug 2008 03:01 EDT Starting in their 20s, a Miami-Dade couple built what would turn out to be one of the largest Medicare fraud schemes in the country. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog/medicare/story/628279.html http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog/medicare/story/628279.html Mon, 04 Aug 2008 03:01 EDT There are nearly 2,100 South Florida businesses licensed by Medicare to sell medical supplies such as wheelchairs, artificial limbs and home oxygen equipment. Miami-Dade County has the most, with 931 active providers, followed by Broward County, 782, and Palm Beach County, 385. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog/medicare/story/627480.html http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog/medicare/story/627480.html Sun, 03 Aug 2008 03:01 EDT Whenever Alexander McCray lights up his crack pipe, U.S. taxpayers help pay for his habit. McCray has defrauded Medicare by selling his government-issued health card number to private clinics in exchange for kickbacks of $150 to $300 a visit -- as often as three times a day, three times a week over seven years, according to federal records and his own admission. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog/medicare/story/627471.html http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog/medicare/story/627471.html Sun, 03 Aug 2008 03:01 EDT An artificial leg and leather socket: $4,300. Ninety pieces of collagen dressing at 48 square inches each: $20,552. One hundred ninety-two vials of Filgrastim to decrease infection during chemotherapy: $38,112. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog/medicare/story/627481.html http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog/medicare/story/627481.html Sun, 03 Aug 2008 03:01 EDT Medicare is a federal program that provides health insurance to 44 million people -- about one in seven Americans. People aged 65 and older are automatically entitled to Medicare if they or their spouse are eligible for Social Security. This group accounts for about 37 million Medicare beneficiaries.