Feds accuse South Florida businessmen of exploiting the pandemic to bilk Medicare
A handful of South Florida healthcare businessmen have been charged with bilking the federal government of millions of dollars by exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic and billing for unnecessary medical services.
As part of a nationwide crackdown this week, the Justice Department charged Michael Stein and Leonel Palatnik, both of Palm Beach County, with running a $73 million conspiracy to defraud the Medicare health insurance program while paying and receiving kickbacks during the pandemic.
Stein, owner of a purported consulting company, and Palatnik, owner of a Texas company that provides lab testing, are accused of exploiting temporary waivers of telehealth restrictions during the pandemic by offering medical providers access to Medicare patients for whom they could bill consultations.
In exchange, according to the indictment, these providers referred those same Medicare patients to Palatnik’s company, Panda Conservation Group, for “expensive and medically unnecessary” cancer and cardiovascular genetic testing.
The defendants’ attorneys were not listed on the docket for their newly filed case so they could not be reached for comment.
In a second South Florida case, Juan Nava Ruiz and Eric Frank, both of Coral Springs, are charged with conspiring in a $9.3 million kickback scheme, along with Christopher Licata of Boca Raton, who was indicted in April.
Licata, owner of Boca Toxicology, a clinical laboratory, is accused of offering and paying kickbacks to patient brokers, including Ruiz and Frank, in exchange for referring Medicare patients to his lab for genetic and other testing that they did not need, according to prosecutors. Among the alleged unnecessary charges: $422,748 for respiratory pathogen panel tests and genetic tests that were “improperly bundled” with COVID-19 testing, prosecutors said.
Licata’s Miami lawyers, Gerald Greenberg and Dan Gelber, provided a statement, saying that “Chris looks forward to seeing the government’s evidence and addressing the allegations in the forum where they were made.”
Frank’s attorney, Joseph Nascimento, declined to comment. No lawyer was listed for Ruiz on the court docket.
In a news release, the Justice Department Wednesday condemned the exploitation of the COVID-19 pandemic in Florida and five other states, highlighting new criminal cases filed against 14 defendants accused of fleecing the taxpayer-funded Medicare program.
“These medical professionals, corporate executives and others allegedly took advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to line their own pockets instead of providing needed health care services during this unprecedented time in our country,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco.
This story was originally published May 27, 2021 at 7:00 AM.
