Defendants from San Fernando Valley and Orange County accused of billing taxpayers $7 million in bogus Medi-Cal claims
Defendants from San Fernando Valley and Orange County accused of billing taxpayers $7 million in bogus Medi-Cal claims
by Eric Licas
Prosecutors have accused four people from the San Fernando Valley and a doctor from Seal Beach who worked at a clinic in Los Angeles of creating fake Medi-Cal records and running a $7 million scheme to defraud Medi-Cal.
Hilda Haroutunian, 60, of Sun Valley, owned and operated Los Angeles Community Clinic, 1830 W Olympic Blvd. She has been indicted along with four other people who worked at the business.
Haroutunian and Dr. Keyvan Amirikhorheh, 59, of Seal Beach; Lorraine Watson, 56, of Valley Village; Noem Sarkisyan, 63, of North Hollywood, as well as Edmond Sarkisyan, 40 of North Hollywood, face allegations of conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
Prosecutors accused them of creating fake patient names, charts and prescriptions. They then allegedly billed Medi-Cal’s Family Planning Access Care and Treatment (PACT) program for office visits that never happened and services for patients who did not exists, officials said in the indictment.
The defendants went on to refer those phony cases to other businesses, and allegedly facilitated millions of dollars in bogus claims in exchange for kickbacks from pharmacies and medical testing facilities.
Los Angeles Community Clinic collected about $4,090,554 in taxpayer money for Family PACT services, court documents show. In that same period of time, Medi-Cal paid out $3,309,477 to pharmacies and diagnostic facilities based on fraudulent claims originating from the clinic. The Family PACT program offers financial assistance for family planning, contraception and sexually transmitted disease screening to patients living off of limited incomes.
Noem Sarkisyan’s lawyer, Judith Rochlin, declined a request for comment. Edmond Sarkisyan’s lawyer, Bernard Rosen, also chose not to comment on the case, noting that proceedings against his client were in their earliest stages. Amirikhorheh was represented by an attorney from the Federal Public Defender’s office, but it was not clear from court records if Haroutunian or Watson had arranged legal representation as of Wednesday.
The five people named in last week’s indictment were among 25 defendants facing allegations of health care fraud in 10 separate federal cases filed in Southern California, U.S. Attorneys’ officials said in a news release Wednesday, Sept. 18. All together, they were accused of seeking over $150 million in bogus claims from Medicare, Medicaid, union benefit plans and private insurers.
“Health care fraud schemes cheat American taxpayers and healthcare programs out of millions of dollars,” Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Division, Paul D. Delacourt said in the release. “With the assistance of the public, the FBI and partner agencies will continue to combat this unscrupulous criminal activity that seeks to financially exploit our healthcare system.”
All credit goes to Eric Licas Originally published on https://www.dailynews.com
