Focus of Medicare fraud case transfers to alleged ringleader

The Miami Herald reports:

Two Miami-Dade men who bribed assisted-living facilities, home healthcare agencies and patients in an elaborate scheme to bilk $2.8 million from Medicare for bogus rehabilitation services were sentenced Wednesday to several years in federal prison.

Ernesto Montaner, 44, a computer and billing expert, was sentenced to four years and ordered to repay the taxpayer-funded healthcare program $2.8 million by U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke. Jose A. Varona, 38, a patient recruiter and partner, was sentenced to three years and must reimburse $1.2 million.

Both men, who faced up to 10 years after pleading guilty in May to one count of conspiring to defraud the federal entitlement program, cooperated with prosecutors against the alleged ringleader, Montaner's father, Ernesto Angel Montaner.

The father, a longtime healthcare provider whose four Miami-Dade clinics specialized in physical and occupational therapy, had fled to Costa Rica but was arrested this summer. Now in jail, Montaner, 69, awaits extradition to Miami.

An article well worth your time.Socialized medicine means corruption opportunities for many.