Health Care, Medicare Fraud: Cuba Becomes Haven for White-Collar Criminals
Fraudsters have stolen more than $360 million from Medicare this year.
July 25, 2011— -- There are some places even the FBI can't go in the search for health care fraudsters accused of bilking the system and raking in millions of dollars.
Cuba has become the destination of choice for some of the fugitives from South Florida, authorities say. The U.S. Department of Justice believes that dozens have fled to the island nation, according to an agency letter.
Once fugitives are in Cuba, there's no way for authorities to get them back because of the lack of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Health care fraud is a multimillion-dollar business in South Florida, with more than 150 fugitives who've allegedly fleeced Medicare out of more than $360 million this year, according to the FBI.
The FBI says that the most common form of health care fraud in South Florida involves outpatient services where people allegedly bill Medicare for equipment or treatments that patients never received or did not need if they received them.
Magda Luz Lavin is one example. She owned and operated clinics in Miami from 2000 to 2002 that purportedly treated HIV patients. She submitted fraudulent claims to Medicare and eventually made off with $5 million for those false claims. She fled near the end of her 2006 trial and was convicted in absentia on health care fraud charges, among others. She is listed as one of the FBI's most wanted white-collar criminals.
Both the FBI and the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services list the most wanted fugitives in connection with health care fraud. Three of the seven on the FBI list are of Cuban descent and were allegedly involved in similar multimillion-dollar scams before fleeing the country.
The FBI says it works closely with the U.S. Attorney's Office, the DOJ and others to tackle the issue of health care fraud but that they are only part of the solution.
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