Two Laredo doctors indicted in $300M health care fraud

A total of 10 people have been indicted on allegations of participating in a $300 million health care fraud, with two Laredo doctors accused of accepting a combined $700,000 in kickbacks, according to court documents. The U.S. Attorney’s Office out of the Northern District of Texas identified the Laredo doctors as Jose Roel Maldonado and Eduardo Carlos Canova in a 26-count indictment. “Anti-kickback laws are designed to ensure that financial considerations do not cloud physicians’ judgment,” said U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham. “The Justice Department is determined to prosecute those flouting our nation’s health care fraud laws. Patients — and taxpayers — deserve rigorous enforcement.”

Maldonado and Canova were each charged with conspiracy to pay and receive health care kickbacks, soliciting and receipt of illegal kickbacks and conspiracy to commit health care fraud. The indictment states the accused engaged in a complex scheme that funneled illegal kickbacks to medical providers in exchange for the referral of prescribed tests, such as blood and toxicology, to laboratories controlled by certain defendants. “These kickbacks were disguised in a variety of ways, including, but not limited to fraudulent lease payments, salary offsets, payments to third parties, commissions, fraudulent medical adviser agreements, and ownership interests in certain laboratories. As a result of these kickbacks, laboratories controlled by certain defendants were able to submit more than $300 million in billing to federal government healthcare programs,” states the indictment.