Detroit Clinic Owner and Patient Recruiter Plead Guilty in $15 Million Fr...( Miami Residents Imp...),Health

Miami Residents Import South Florida Infusion Scheme to Detroit Area

WASHINGTON, Aug. 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Miami residents Jose and Arnaldo Rosario pleaded guilty today to participating in a conspiracy to defraud the Medicare program of approximately $15.3 million, Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Terrence Berg of the Eastern District of Michigan and Daniel R. Levinson, Inspector General of the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) announced. Both defendants pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud before U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen.

According to information contained in plea documents, Jose Rosario acknowledged that in approximately September 2006, he and a co-defendant incorporated Sacred Hope Medical Center Inc. (Sacred Hope) in the state of Michigan. Sacred Hope purported to specialize in providing injection and infusion therapy services to Medicare patients. Jose Rosario admitted that he and the co-defendant were the owners of the clinic, and agreed to split the profits generated there evenly between them. During the time that Sacred Hope was open, the clinic routinely billed the Medicare program for services that were medically unnecessary and/or never provided. Jose Rosario admitted to being aware that the clinic had purchased only a small fraction of the medications that the clinic billed the Medicare program for providing. According to information contained in plea documents, patients were prescribed medications at the clinic based not on medical need, but based on what medications were likely to generate Medicare reimbursements. Jose Rosario admitted he participated in hiring co-conspirators to falsify the medical files to make the treatments purportedly being provided at Sacred Hope appear legitimate, when in fact he knew they were
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