Two business owners have pleaded guilty to buying and selling fake physician orders used to obtain more than $1.5 million in fraudulent Medicare payments.
Brett Weiner and Valerie Desalvo, who owned and operated Boca Raton, Fla.-based Laboratory Marketing Services, received kickbacks in exchange for patient leads with billable Medicare beneficiaries' personal identifying information, according to a Nov. 13 news release from the Justice Department.
The leads included Medicare beneficiaries' names, Medicare numbers, diagnoses, pain levels and primary care physicians.
According to the release, Mr. Weiner and Ms. Desalvo also bought and sold physicians' orders, which they sold to durable medical equipment companies.