Isabel Medina, 49, the owner and operator of a Miami medical clinic, Merfi Corp, has been sentenced to serve 108 months in prison for her role in multiple health care fraud schemes. Officials of the U.S. Department of Justice, including officials of the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), made the announcement on Friday.
U.S. District Judge Ursula Ungaro of the Southern District of Florida also sentenced Medina to serve three years of supervised release beyond 108 months of imprisonment, and ordered her to pay $8,437,393 in restitution. Earlier this year, Medina had pleaded guilty before Judge Ungaro to conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
According to complaints against her, Medina employed physicians, physician assistants and other medical professionals who were authorized by law to dispense prescriptions for home health care services. Through her medical clinic, Medina and her co-conspirators provided fraudulent home health and therapy prescriptions to the owners and operators of Flores Home Health Care Inc. and other home health care agencies, for kickbacks and bribes. Medina also paid patient recruiters.
Flores Home Health and other home health care agencies operated for the purpose of billing Medicare for expensive physical therapy and home health care services that were not medically necessary and/or were not provided. The fraudulent schemes at multiple home health care companies have led to losses in excess of $20 million to the Medicare program.
The case is under active investigation by the FBI and the Medicare Fraud Strike Force under the supervision of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.