Practice administrative assistant sentenced for fraudulent prescriptions
An administrative assistant at an Illinois orthopedics office was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison for writing fraudulent prescriptions for opioids.
Amanda Biesiada, 39, of Alsip, Ill., who worked as an administrative assistant at Hinsdale Orthopaedics in Westmont, Ill., was not a licensed physician and could not legally write the prescriptions unless instructed to do so and supervised by licensed doctors.
According to a statement by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, the prescriptions for hydrocodone, oxycodone, and other controlled substances – 85 prescriptions in all from 2017 to 2019 – were made out to an acquaintance of Biesiada’s and written without the knowledge or approval of the providers in whose names she wrote them.
Federal officials said Ms. Biesiada attempted to conceal the fraudulent prescriptions by marking them “filed in error” in the practice’s prescription system.
Lab owner pleads guilty to $6.9 million testing fraud scheme
A Florida lab owner has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud Medicare through false and fraudulent claims totaling more than $6.9 million.
According to court documents, Christopher Licata, 45, of Delray Beach, Fla., admitted to bribing patient brokers to refer orders for medically unnecessary genetic testing to his lab. The tests were then billed to Medicare.
Mr. Licata and the patient brokers entered sham agreements meant to disguise the true purpose of the payments, according to a statement from the Department of Justice. The 45-year-old owner of Boca Toxicology (dba Lab Dynamics) pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to commit health care fraud.
The scheme began in 2018; however, once the pandemic began, Mr. Licata shifted strategies, playing on patients’ fears of COVID-19 to bundle inexpensive COVID tests with more expensive medically unnecessary tests. These tests included respiratory pathogen panels and genetic testing for cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, and other illnesses. In all, Mr. Licata’s laboratory submitted over $6.9 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare for these unnecessary tests, according to the DOJ statement.
The case is a part of the U.S. Attorney General’s COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force that was established to enhance the efforts of agencies and governments across the country to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud.
Mr. Licata faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. His sentencing is scheduled for March 24.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.