A former Pennsylvania healthcare executive was sentenced to 30 months in prison for conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and defrauding Medicare.
From 2017 to 2019, Florentina Mayko and her co-conspirators submitted medically unnecessary urine drug tests for chronic opioid patients at medical clinics where she served as CEO, according to a Dec. 15 news release from the Justice Department.
Ms. Mayko was named CEO of Pain Medicine of York (Pa.) in 2018, where she was in charge of day-to-day operations. The clinic had a policy, established by the clinic's owner, Rodney Yentzer, and a physician, of ordering urine drug tests for patients at every office visit, regardless of medical necessity.
Ms. Mayko and Mr. Yentzer were confronted repeatedly regarding the unlawful nature of the billing but continued to use the practice until search warrants were executed November 2019, according to the release. The clinic ceased operations thereafter.
From mid-2017 to 2019, the clinic billed Medicare for more than $10 million in urine tests, and Medicare paid more than $5 million. When medically unnecessary tests were billed, the clinic received the proceeds. Ms. Mayko, for example, earned half a million dollars per year in 2018 and 2019, the release said.