Florida Nurse Found Guilty of Participating in $200M Healthcare Fraud Scheme

In a recent legal development, a nurse practitioner from Florida, Elizabeth Hernandez, has found herself on the wrong side of the law. This week, she faced a federal jury, ultimately resulting in her conviction for her involvement in a massive healthcare fraud scheme valued at a staggering $200 million.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) released an official statement, shedding light on the nature of Hernandez’s crimes. According to the DOJ, Hernandez was deeply involved in this fraudulent operation, having “signed thousands of orders” for orthotic braces and medically unimportant genetic analysis, which were billed directly to Medicare.

Telemarketing firms played a central role in this operation by sending pre-filled orders for orthotic braces and genetic tests to Hernandez. These companies had already gone to great lengths to convince Medicare beneficiaries to request these tests and equipment. Despite never having met or spoken with any of the patients, Hernandez readily signed off on these orders, further perpetuating the fraud.

The DOJ stated, “In 2020, Hernandez ordered more cancer genetic tests for Medicare beneficiaries than any other provider in the nation, including oncologists and geneticists. She then billed Medicare as though she were conducting complex office visits with these patients, and routinely billed more than 24 hours of ‘office visits’ in a single day.” The DOJ further noted that Hernandez personally profited over $1.5 million from the scheme, money that she spent on luxury goods such as automobiles, jewelry, home improvements and vacations.

Hernandez, whose trial lasted several days, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to conduct a healthcare and wire scam, four counts of healthcare fraudulent activity, and three counts of knowingly providing false statements connected to healthcare concerns. She could be sentenced to a maximum of 20 years in jail for conspiring schemes, 10 years for each count of defrauding healthcare providers, and 5 years for each count of putting forward false claims. Her sentencing is set to take place on December 14.

According to reports, more conspirators have already pleaded guilty and been sentenced to prison for their involvement in the extensive telemedicine conspiracy. These individuals include Michael Stein, age 36, and Leonel Palatnik, age 44, who jointly owned genetic testing facilities in Texas and illegally invoiced for the tests that were requested while also coordinating the permissions for telemedicine.

At the beginning of this year, the DOJ filed criminal charges against 11 individuals in relation to a nearly $2 billion telemedicine conspiracy, which was considered one of the biggest healthcare fraud schemes that had ever been investigated.

According to information provided by the DOJ in June, the Health Care Fraud Strike Force program has filed charges against an estimated 5,000 offenders since March 2007. These offenders combined billed commercial and public health insurance providers for more than $24 billion.