Florida eye doctor gets 17 years for Medicare fraud

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A prominent Florida eye doctor once accused of bribing Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey received a 17-year sentence Thursday for stealing $73 million from Medicare by persuading elderly patients to undergo excruciating tests and treatments they didn't need for diseases they didn't have.

Dr. Salomon Melgen was convicted of 67 crimes including health care fraud, submitting false claims and falsifying records in patients' files. Prosecutors showed that between 2008 and 2013, he became the nation's highest-paid Medicare doctor, building his practice by giving elderly patients unnecessary eye injections and laser blasts on their retinas that some compared to torture.

Melgen, 63, was ordered to pay $42.6 million in restitution to Medicare and could be ordered to pay more in the future.

The sentencing came after four days of hearings spread over December and January, with prosecutors arguing he stole $136 million but his attorneys insisting the proven total was $64,000. U.S. District Judge Kenneth A. Marra said the evidence shows the theft was at least $73 million.


Source : Yahoo News