Daisy Martinez, Medicare Fraud, Michigan 2009

A 51-year-old Miami resident has been sentenced to 96 months in prison for her role in a series of Detroit Medicare fraud schemes.

Daisy Martinez, 51, pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of Michigan on October 30, 2009, to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud.

According to information contained in plea documents, Martinez admitted that in approximately March 2006, she devised a scheme with co-conspirator Jose Rosario to open a clinic that purported to specialize in infusion and injection therapy services in Michigan.

The sole purpose of the clinic, Sacred Hope Medical Center Inc., was to defraud Medicare. Martinez and her co-conspirators opened the clinic in Southfield, Mich., in October 2006. Martinez was an owner of the clinic and managed it on a day-to-day basis.

Martinez admitted that during the time Sacred Hope was open, the clinic routinely billed the Medicare program for services that were medically unnecessary or were never provided. She also admitted to helping falsify medical files to make the treatments appear legitimate.

Martinez and her co-conspirators also recruited Medicare beneficiaries through the payment of kickbacks. The kickbacks came in the form of cash and prescriptions for narcotic drugs. Martinez admitted to knowing that co-conspirator Arnaldo Rosario oversaw and facilitated the payment of cash kickbacks to the Medicare beneficiaries.

Chief U.S. District Judge Gerald E. Rosen also ordered Martinez to pay $10,765,325 in restitution and to serve three years of supervised release following her prison term.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/detroit-woman-who-opened-clinics-fraudulently-bill-medicare-sentenced-96-months-prison