Mark Mazzare, MD, a physician in Tyler, Texas, has pleaded guilty to his role in a $5.5 million over-the-counter COVID-19 test fraud scheme.
According to a Dec. 16 news release from the Justice Department, Dr. Mazzare purchased Medicare beneficiary ID numbers and used them to bill Medicare for millions of dollars in OTC COVID-19 test kits, many of which were not requested by beneficiaries.
Dr. Mazzare partnered with a "purported marketer" to conceal the identification numbers as "lead packages," which were actually fraudulently created audio recordings purported to be the voices of the beneficiaries requesting the test kits. He then caused the test to be shipped to the beneficiaries tied to each ID number, regardless of whether they had actually ordered the tests.
This resulted in more than $5.5 million in medically unnecessary and ineligible claims for COVID-19 tests to be submitted to Medicare between November 2022 and June 2023. Medicare paid approximately $3.44 million of these claims.
Dr. Mazzare pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the government and to purchasing, selling and distributing Medicare beneficiary ID numbers. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison.