Federal Agents Uncover Alleged $2M Medicare Fraud In Denver
DENVER (CBs4) - Dr. Louis Cabiling is a physical therapy doctor in Pueblo. He had no idea that unknown individuals operating as "A Plus Billing, Inc." stole his identity to submit fraudulent claims for medical services to the Medicare program.
Federal agents uncovered that the company was paid at least $1,838,294.27 in fraudulent Medicare billings.
"This is pretty bad and scary," Cabiling said. "They need to be prosecuted, all these people who are doing this."
According to court documents, A Plus Billing, Inc. submitted bills for certain services, including MRI, allergy and EKG testing all allegedly performed by Cabiling. The address A Plus Billing, Inc. used was 600 17th Street in Denver. CBS4 learned the address led to Your Office USA, a company that allows companies to receive mail and have a receptionist answer their phone for $150 a month. There was no physical office space for A Plus Billing, Inc.
"They're no longer here," the receptionist told CBS4.
The billing company was listed to Aliya Valeeva, who according to United States Immigration records, hasn't been in the country since 2006.
The FBI has moved to seize $782,893.49 from an account at the BBVA/Compass Bank in the name of A Plus Billing, Inc.
"They are stealing money from the government and Medicare is not in good shape," Cabiling said.
Medicare says under the old rules they had to pay out all electronically submitted bills from doctors and other service providers in just over two weeks.
"For years we had no choice but to do a pay and chase way of doing business," Medicare spokesperson Mike Fierberg said. "Any claim with an appropriate provider and recipient number had to be paid within 15 days."
Now, under the Affordable Care Act, Medicare says the new rules make it easier to detect these types of scams. Medicare has recovered about $4 billion in fraudulent or errant billing in the past fiscal year alone.
- Written by Young Kim for CBSDenver.com
