Medicare Biller Sentenced To Ten Years In Prison In $170 Million Fraud Scheme

In Miami on Wednesday, Rita Campos Ramirez of Miami was sentenced to 10 years in prison by US District Judge Alan S. Gold for her role in a $170 million Medicaid fraud scheme. Campos pleaded guilty last August to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and one count of submitting false claims to Medicare. Campos admitted that from 2002 to 2006 she owned and operated R&I Medical Billing Inc., a medical billing company submitted bills to Medicare on behalf of HIV infusion clinics; she knowingly submitted approximately $170 million in fraudulent medical bills to Medicare on behalf of 75 HIV infusion clinics in Miami-Dade County that were part of the scheme. Medicare wound up paying about $105 million and Campos received about $5 million personally (DOJ Press Release).

In a related case, on Wednesday seven Miami area residents were indicted on charges that they set up a fake HIV infusion clinic and billed Medicare for $11 million in non-existent treatments (AHN). And in a previous related case, Dr. Orestes-Alvarez Jacinto was sentenced to 18 months in prison last October after pleasing guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud. He was a doctor at St. Jude’s Rehab Center, one of the clinics serviced by R&I Medical Billing; he admitted submitting $7 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare, of which $5 million was paid.