On behalf of the entire team, here at Allegiant Experts, we hope you enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving Day and weekend with your family and friends! We must admit that we have quite a lot to be thankful for ourselves. Among those many things are the opportunities we get to assist attorneys who try cases against individuals who commit healthcare fraud.
As clinical experts, it’s not our job to judge whether those who are on trial are guilty or innocent. Instead, we offer our expertise in the worlds of nursing practice and the health care system. Allegiant Experts supports attorneys and special investigation units in a number of ways. Our assistance comes by way of screening cases for merit, assisting with discovery and locating or acting as expert witnesses – just to name a few of our expert services.
Of course, we take a special interest in incidents that occur in our home state of Florida. This is why we couldn’t help but notice a report published by the United States Department of Justice last Tuesday that covered the guilty plea of a Miami-based man in a $63 million health care fraud scheme. 70 year-old, Samuel Konell of Boca Raton has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and to receive health care kickbacks.
According to the report, Konell admitted that from January 2006 to June 2012, he received kickbacks and bribes in return for referring Medicare beneficiaries from the Miami-Dade state court system to Greater Miami Behavioral Healthcare Center Inc. (Greater Miami) to serve as patients.
“Specifically, Konell admitted that he coordinated with criminal defendants in the state court system to obtain court orders for mental health treatment in lieu of incarceration so that Konell could refer those individuals to Greater Miami to serve as patients in return for kickbacks and/or bribes,” the report details, “Konell further admitted that he did so knowing that certain of those individuals were not mentally ill or otherwise did not meet the criteria for PHP (partial hospitalization program) treatment.”
Konell also admitted that both he and his co-conspirators worked to disguise the truth about the kickbacks and bribes that were paid out by Greater Miami. In fact, he was put on the healthcare center’s payroll in order to make his kickbacks and bribes appear as if they were legitimate salary payments.
It didn’t stop there. Konell was also paid a regular flat rate on a monthly basis, based on the number of patients he referred to Greater Miami from the state court system. When he found a way to refer more patients than usual, he was paid amounts that were over and above his standard kickback payments.
In total, Konell and his co-conspirators submitted upwards of $63 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare. “These claims were based on kickbacks and/or bribes paid to Konell and others and were for services that were medically unnecessary, were not eligible for Medicare reimbursement or were never provided by Greater Miami,” explains the report.
Are you an attorney who is in the process of trying a case against a healthcare fraudster? Please don’t hesitate to contact Allegiant Experts to discover how we may be able to help. Simply call us at 407-217-5831 or email us at info@allegiantexperts.com.
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