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Gladys Fuertes, 40, and Husband Arrested for Operating Clinic to Defraud Medicare
Tampa, FL – In a shocking move, United States Attorney A. Lee Bentley, III has announced the unsealing of an indictment charging Miami residents Gladys Fuertes and her husband Mario Fuertes, 38, with conspiracy, healthcare fraud, aggravated identity theft, and obstructing a healthcare investigation.
The indictment alleges that the couple operated a sham clinic, Gables Medical and Therapy Center, in Coral Gables, Florida, for the purpose of committing healthcare fraud. They allegedly employed unlicensed medical professionals and misused the Medicare billing numbers of other medical professionals, without their knowledge, to claim that they rendered medical treatment to Gables patients.
Gladys and Mario Fuertes also paid a co-conspirator to recruit Medicare beneficiaries for Gables and to drive patients to the clinic for basic and sham medical services. Once recruited, the couple urged the Gables patients to enroll in Universal’s Medicare Part C and Part D plans, which they believed paid a relatively high percentage of its claims.
The indictment states that the defendants fraudulently billed Universal and caused Universal’s Medicare Part C plan to be billed for Gables patients’ supposed treatments, including expensive HIV-related treatments that patients never actually received. They also billed Universal and caused Universal to be billed for services that required a physician’s presence when no licensed physician was present or rendered the service.
The defendants and their co-conspirators paid the Medicare beneficiaries, who were recruited to come to Gables for their Medicare identification numbers, to allow Gables to bill Universal for services that were never rendered. In addition, Gladys and Mario Fuertes facilitated the provision of fraudulent prescriptions for controlled substances, including Oxycodone, to Gables patients. In some cases, the signatures on the prescriptions were forged.
Once they learned of the federal healthcare fraud investigation into their actions, Gladys and Mario Fuertes instructed Gables patients to lie to law enforcement agents and otherwise obstruct a federal investigation into health care fraud at Gables. The couple also provided altered Medicare billing documentation to federal agents investigating their activities.
An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed a violation of the federal criminal laws, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless, and until, proven guilty. If convicted, each faces a maximum penalty of ten years in federal prison on each of the conspiracy and healthcare fraud counts and five years on each of the obstruction counts, as well as mandatory sentences of two years in prison for each of the aggravated identity theft counts.
Key Facts
- State: Florida
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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