South Florida residents charged in DOJ Covid-19 fraud crackdown - South Florida Business Journal bizjournals.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from bizjournals.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Send
A 42-year-old Sebastian County man has been charged with health care fraud in connection with an alleged scheme to defraud the federal government of more than $88 million.
Billy Joe Taylor, 42, of Lavaca, is the owner and operator of Vitas Laboratories LLC of Barling (Sebastian County) and Beach Tox LLC of Torrance, California. He allegedly used access to patient and medical provider information from previous lab testing orders to file phony claims for tests, including COVID-19 tests, that were never ordered or performed, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
More than $42 million in false and fraudulent claims came during COVID, the news release said. The criminal complaint was filed Friday and unsealed Tuesday. Taylor was arrested Wednesday and released on bond.
To embed, copy and paste the code into your website or blog:
In a narrative that seems likely to be repeated in the coming year, the DOJ Healthcare Fraud Unit’s (HCF Unit) contribution to the Fraud Section’s 2020 Year in Review emphasized its enforcement action in three areas:
Opioid epidemic
COVID-19
With an entire year of healthcare delivery during a pandemic now behind us, and a new administration assessing its priorities, it is likely that the focus on each of these subjects will be broader and deeper in the coming year.
Two Focuses of the Take-Down Were Telemedicine and Substance Abuse Treatment Facilities