Jorge Juvier, Medicare Fraud, New York 2015

Jorge Juvier Sentenced to 63 Months in Prison for $12 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme

A former owner and operator of multiple HIV/AIDS clinics in New York City has been sentenced to 63 months in prison for engaging in a scheme to defraud Medicare out of more than $12 million. Jorge Juvier, 58, of Queens, New York, was sentenced today to 63 months in prison for his role in the Medicare fraud scheme.

According to the criminal complaint, Juvier and his co-conspirators set up and operated multiple health care clinics in New York City that purported to provide injection and infusion treatments to Medicare-eligible HIV/AIDS patients, but were, in reality, health care fraud mills. The Clinics routinely billed Medicare for medications that were never provided or were provided at highly diluted doses, and were often unnecessary because the person being “treated” did not medically need the treatments.

Juvier and his co-conspirators paid patients cash kickbacks of up to $300 per week in exchange for coming to the Clinics and agreeing to undergo the treatments. Patients were also offered approximately $50 for each additional patient they referred to the Clinics. Juvier and his co-conspirators regularly instructed patients to lie to clinic doctors by claiming they had medical conditions that they did not in fact have.

The scheme resulted in Juvier and his co-conspirators defrauding the Medicare system out of at least $12 million from 2009 through 2013. In addition to the term of prison, Juvier was sentenced to three years of supervised release and was ordered to pay $12,233,292.23 in forfeiture and $12,233,292.23 in restitution.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said, “Jorge Juvier and his co-conspirators set up and operated health care fraud mills and billed Medicare for HIV/AIDS medications that were incorrectly provided or not provided at all. Juvier and his co-conspirators effectively stole more than $12 million from U.S. taxpayers that could have been used to pay for legitimate Medicare expenses. The sentence imposed today on Juvier reflects the seriousness of his offense.”

This case was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, which is a partnership between the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, and the New York State Office of Medicaid Inspector General.

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