Glazer Clinic Owner, Medicare Fraud, California 2023

East Hollywood-Based Doctor and Patient Recruiter Found Guilty in $33 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme

LOS ANGELES - A federal jury has found an East Hollywood-based doctor and patient recruiter guilty today for their roles in a $33 million Medicare fraud scheme in which Medicare was billed for clinic, home health, hospice services and durable medical equipment that patients did not need or did not receive.

Robbert A. Glazer, of North Hollywood, the owner and operator of the East Hollywood-based Glazer Clinic, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and 12 counts of health care fraud. Co-defendant Marina Merino, 62, of Los Angeles, a marketer who recruited patients in exchange for kickback payments, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and eight counts of health care fraud.

Glazer and Merino are scheduled to be sentenced on September 9 by United States District Judge Otis D. Wright II. Each defendant faces the possibility of decades in federal prison.

The scheme involved Glazer billing Medicare for office services and tests that patients did not need or did not receive. Glazer also referred Medicare patients for a variety of services, including home health and hospice services, as well as ordered durable medical equipment that patients did not need or did not receive.

According to the evidence presented at trial, Merino and other marketers received payments from Angela Avetisyan, the office manager of Glazer Clinic and co-owner of Fifth Avenue Home Health located in East Hollywood, and Ashot Minasyan, co-owner of Fifth Avenue, to recruit Medicare beneficiaries to the Glazer Clinic. Avetisyan and Minasyan pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud in October 2018, and are scheduled to be sentenced on June 10.

The case was investigated by the FBI, HHS-OIG, the IRS, and was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, under the supervision of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Claire Yan, Robyn Pullio, and Emily Culbertson of the Fraud Section.

The Fraud Section leads the Medicare Fraud Strike Force. Since its inception in March 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, which maintains 14 strike forces operating in 23 districts, has charged nearly 4,000 defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for more than $14 billion.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/east-hollywood-based-doctor-and-patient-recruiter-found-guilty-33-million-medicare