RUSSIAN AND CUBAN CRIME GANGS LOOT MEDICARE MEDICAID FOR MILLIONS

U.S. Senators are concerned that billions in tax dollars are being stolen from Medicare and Medicare by Russian and Cuban criminal groups and the moneys dispersed and hidden in various nations. Earlier this week, federal officials in Miami charged Oscar Sanchez in connection with a criminal operation which defrauded Medicare of at least $31 million which ended up in Cuban banks. In addition officials announced the capture of others including Irina Shelikhova who paid cash kickbacks to Medicare beneficiaries to induce them to receive unnecessary physicians’ services, physical therapy and diagnostic tests at medical clinicals. The group created fraudulent medical records for these beneficiaries and then filed false claims with Medical which were not medically necessary but were approved and paid. In February of this year 9 clinics in New York and 105 separate corporations were all found to be in the service of a health care fraud ring which stole more than a quarter of a billion dollars. The ring, centered in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, has spawned the highest rate of health care fraud in the nation and is run by the Russian speaking population most of whom immigrated from The Soviet Union. According to the New York Times, organized crime groups in Russia send people with no criminal records to the U.S. where with seed money they operate Medicare fraud schemes for a year or two before returning. In one recent case, a criminal ring sought reimbursement for so many excessive treatments that it had to set up three separate billing processing companies to handle the paperwork. Medicare looted for more than $100 million each year to fraud.