Federal prosecutors on Tuesday revealed details in one of the bigger medical frauds ever discovered, implicating five men — including the former chief financial officer of a Long Beach hospital and two surgeons — who allegedly inflated nearly $600 million in medical billings.
Prosecutors contend the surgeons and other defendants committed various crimes related to schemes that saw dozens of physicians and other conspirators cashing in on a lucrative system of kickbacks in which patients were directed to hospitals in Long Beach and Hawaiian Gardens. In some instances, the government said, patients, whose doctors never told them about the kickback arrangement, traveled hundreds of miles for surgeries despite the presence of qualified facilities near their actual homes.
Read Full Article »