Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; John V. Gillies, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office; and Christopher B. Dennis, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), Miami Field Office, announce today’s sentencing of defendant Jerry A. Spiegel, 78, of Boynton Beach, Florida. U.S. District Court Judge Joan A. Lenard sentenced Spiegel to 41 months’ imprisonment, to be followed by three years of supervised release. As a condition of his supervised release, Spiegel was required to relinquish his medical license. In addition, the court ordered Spiegel to pay $880,958 in restitution for his role in the health care fraud conspiracy.
Last year, Spiegel was found guilty of conspiring to commit health care fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1349. According to court documents, Spiegel was the medical director of three Miami-Dade County HIV/AIDS-infusion clinics: R&M Services Center Corp., Buena Vista Family Medical Center, Inc., and Solution Diagnostic Center, Inc. While medical director of these three clinics, Spiegel signed patient prescriptions without first examining patients or reviewing patient files. The HIV/AIDS-infusion medications that Spiegel prescribed were not medically necessary and were not administered to patients.
According to court documents, during Spiegel’s tenure as medical director, and based on the prescriptions he signed, the three clinics billed the Medicare program for more than $2.3 million in fraudulent claims. For example, from September 3, 2008 to December 31, 2008, R&M Services submitted $952,589 in fraudulent claims to Medicare, and received $425,385. From August 29, 2008 to January 23, 2009, Buena Vista submitted $769,094 in fraudulent claims to Medicare, and received $270,703. And from October 10, 2008 to February 23, 2009, Solution Diagnostic submitted $617,415 in fraudulent claims to Medicare, and received $184,870.
Mr. Ferrer commended the investigative efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General. This case was prosecuted by Department of Justice Trial Attorney Benton Curtis and Assistant United States Attorney Robert J. Luck.
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