Department of Justice – A nurse practitioner has been convicted of defrauding Medicare by submitting more than $200 million in false claims for expensive genetic testing and medical equipment that beneficiaries did not need.
Elizabeth Hernandez of Florida signed thousands of orders for medically unnecessary orthotic braces and genetic tests. Telemarketing companies would contact Medicare beneficiaries to convince them to request these things, and then send pre-filled orders for them to Hernandez, who falsley attested that she had examined or treated the patients, many of whom she had never spoken to. In 2020, she ordered more genetic cancer tests than any geneticist or oncologist in the U.S., and routinely billed for more than 24 hours of “office visits” in a day, pocketing more than $1.6 million of the $200 million she billed for.
Source:
- Department of Justice: Nurse Practitioner Convicted of $200M Health Care Fraud Scheme
