Two Florida men were charged in a seven-count indictment for their role in a $28 million fraud scheme involving physician kickbacks for durable medical equipment.
From February 2018 to April 2019, Nicholas Alberino and his son Nicholas Alberino operated five Florida companies that generated medically unnecessary prescriptions for certain expensive medications as well as DME, according to a Nov. 13 news release from the Justice Department.
The Alberinos targeted Medicare beneficiaries — call centers targeted the beneficiaries by phone and pressured them to accept the medications and equipment. The Alberinos then transmitted the beneficiaries' personal information, along with pre-signed physician orders and prescriptions to purported telemedicine company RediDoc.
RediDoc sent the information to physicians, who signed the prescription without having any contact with the patients. The physicians would then be steered to third parties with which the Alberinos had kickback and bribe relationships.
The Alberinos received $27 million in kickbacks and bribes from third parties in return for fraudulent orders.