Herald.com | 12/02/2005 | Four arrested in AIDS drug scam

BY JOHN DORSCHNER

jdorschner@herald.com

In what could be the start of a massive crackdown on scams involving HIV/AIDS patients, law enforcement officials announced the arrest of four persons, including two doctors, charged with illegally diverting millions of dollars in drugs.

Nursing home fraud alleged in indictments (Jefferson City News Tribune) - ST. LOUIS (AP) - A federal grand jury returned indictments Thursday on charges that several nursing home operators conspired to defraud Medicare and Medicaid by collecting payments for services they did not provide to their residents.

LA COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE PRESS RELEASE

LOS ANGELES – A Burbank couple suspected of being the masterminds behind a Medicare scheme that took in $5.8 million in two years was arrested today on multiple counts of money laundering, tax fraud and other charges, the District Attorney’s office announced.

Deputy District Attorney Albert MacKenzie with the Fraud Interdiction Program said Sarkis Musoyan, 37 (dob 9-27-67), and his wife, Azatui Dilboyan, 37 (dob 3-31-68), were arrested at their Burbank home by investigators with the D.A.’s Bureau of Investigation.

US Attorney Press Release Boston, MA… A Cambridge physician pleaded guilty late Friday, May 13, 2005 in federal court and admitted to submitting false billings to the Medicare program. United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan and Kenneth W. Kaiser, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in New England, announced that DR. VLADIMIR SHURLAN, age 60, of 7 Channing Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton to a one-count criminal Information that charged him with engaging in a scheme to commit health care fraud.

NJ US Attorney Press Release NEWARK - Bayonne Medical Center, a hospital in Hudson County, today agreed to pay over $242,000 to settle claims that it overcharged Medicare, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie announced. A settlement agreement signed today provides that Bayonne will pay the government $242,340 to settle claims that from 1992 through 1998 it wrongfully submitted claims for inpatient hospital stays for patients who received outpatient services. As a result of Bayonne’s conduct, it received higher reimbursement than it would have had it billed properly, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Stuart A. Minkowitz.

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. — Mailee Renae Lodge (AKA Mailee Renae Reed) was ordered to pay $1.3 million in restitution for cheating Medicare by filing false claims. She was sentenced to five years in prison. She and her husband used a stolen provider id to fraudulently bill for home examinations, sleep studies, pulmonary studies and other procedures.