Pembroke Pines Woman Sentenced to 17 Years for Medicare Fraud

Fort Lauderdale – A Broward County resident was handed a 17-year sentence today for masterminding a massive Medicare fraud scheme that bilked the federal healthcare program out of millions. Alejandra Collazo, 43, from Pembroke Pines, Florida, and her co-defendant Ricardo Corria, 49, of Miami, were both sentenced in a grim courtroom drama.

Collazo, who falsely portrayed herself as a licensed medical professional, owned and operated Vortex Medical Center & Management Services, Inc. (“Vortex”) in Miami. She exploited stolen physician identities to forge prescriptions for home health services, which she then sold at $100 per prescription to patient recruiters. The forged prescriptions were submitted to Medicare by home health agencies, resulting in millions of dollars in false claims.

According to the indictment and sentencing hearing statements, Collazo misrepresented herself as a State of Florida Licensed Nurse Practitioner during the scheme. She has no license as a medical professional in any jurisdiction and has a history of criminal convictions. Corria, who was previously convicted of cocaine trafficking and served federal time, played his part by selling health care kickbacks.

The court also ordered Collazo and Corria to pay restitution totaling $8,459,664 to the Medicare program. Collazo pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and wire fraud, as well as aggravated identity theft, on December 5, 2014. Corria pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States and receive health care kickbacks.

United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Wifredo A. Ferrer, lauded the investigative work of the FBI and HHS-OIG in this case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin J. Larsen prosecuted the charges.

Further details on this case can be found on the websites of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls and the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov, or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.