‘Tata Pharmacy’ billed Medicare millions. Cops call it fraud as dozens cuffed in crackdown
At least 30 people have been charged in connection with a string of South Florida pharmacies state authorities say fraudulently billed Medicare — a scam that continues to be one of Miami’s most lucrative illegal industries.
Police officers on Tuesday began arresting dozens associated with Tata Pharmacy Discount, Lozano Health Care, and in a separate case, Wynwood Family Pharmacy and Santander Pharmacy.
Those arrested in the sprawling case are facing charges of racketeering, organized scheme to defraud and money laundering. The investigation was spearheaded by the Statewide Prosecutor’s Office, Miami-Dade police and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Medicare fraud has long been rampant in South Florida, costing taxpayers billions. Over the past decade, pharmacies have become particular cash cows, with owners and middlemen scouring nursing homes, paying kickbacks to elderly patients in exchange for allowing them to bill for unnecessary medicines in their names.
Most Medicare fraud cases, however, wind up in federal court.
Among those arrested Tuesday by the state were Yanelys Lozano and Daymis Sanchez, who prosecutors say ran Tata Pharmacy, 3810 SW Eighth St. They could not be reached for comment and it was unclear Tuesday if they had retained an attorney.
According to an arrest warrant released Tuesday, the pharmacy was paid over $5 million from federal funds for over 30,000 claims, many of them for medicines that were never actually needed or dispensed to patients.
Lozano is married to Andy Armas, who also ran a pair of corrupt pharmacies in Miami. Federal authorities charged Armas with Medicare fraud in 2016, and he is now in prison.
Another clinic, Wynwood, received close to $4 million in illicit payouts, according to the arrest warrant by Miami-Dade Detective Perry Pitelli and HHS Agent Kenyelle Plummer.
The investigation relied on a series of cooperators — people who had been involved in the business themselves — who secretly wore wires, the warrant said.
Officers also arrested a slew of so-called “professional beneficiaries” — patients who allegedly allowed their Medicare benefits to be used for the scam in exchange for kickbacks.
One of those: 80-year-old Dymphana Garcia, who will surrender on Wednesday. According to police, when confronted, she insisted she’d taken all the medications billed for by the pharmacy.
“My client is an elderly woman and she was brought into this by higher-level people,” said her Miami attorney, David Molansky. “She’s got some mental illness and was taken advantage of.”
The pharmacies also stole the identities of a doctor and a nurse practitioner, claiming they had prescribed the medications, the warrant said.
This story was originally published November 20, 2019 at 6:00 AM.