Oviedo Criminal Defense Attorneys
The government is focused on aggressively prosecuting health care fraud offenses. Medical providers including hospitals, nursing homes, hospice and family practices, as well as individual health care workers are under great scrutiny. Many of these allegations are unfounded. Complicated billing and coding procedures result in honest mistakes — mistakes that end up being prosecuted as a federal crime.
Health care fraud claims cover a wide range of alleged criminal offenses, including:
- Medicare fraud and Medicaid fraud: Accidentally over-billing or double billing for a service under Medicare could immediately raise flags and an investigation by the government. We are here to protect your rights and defend you against any investigations or charges.
- Fraudulently providing unnecessary procedures: One example of health care fraud is when a physician or other health care provider knowingly provides or prescribes unnecessary medical procedures, prescriptions or use of medical equipment.
- Upcoding: It is illegal to bill a procedure under a code that charges at a higher rate. Coding can be complex. This error may simply be a mistake. It is the prosecution's burden to prove intent in these cases.
- Billing for false services: Sometimes bills are entered for services that were not given or rendered. Our firm provides zealous representation to defend you against these serious allegations.
- Referral fees: Practices such as accepting referral fees or kickbacks can be characterized as illegal or fraudulent, resulting in in-depth investigations and charges that can destroy your career or shut down your hospital. Our firm has experience handling these complex health care fraud cases.
Whistleblower Claims
Federal health care fraud offenses also include whistleblower claims. According to the False Claims Act Legal Center, the following are a few of the typical types of health care fraud that may be prosecuted under whistleblower laws:
- Presenting broken or untested equipment as operational and tested
- Automatically running a lab test whenever the results of some other test fall within a certain range, even though the second test was not specifically requested
- "Lick and stick" prescription rebate fraud and "marketing the spread" prescription fraud, both of which involve lying to the government about the true wholesale price of prescription drugs
- Phantom employees and doctored time slips: charging for employees who were not actually on the job, or billing for made-up hours in order to maximize reimbursements
- Billing for unlicensed or unapproved drugs
Experienced Health Care Fraud Defense Lawyers
The law office of Dempsey & Associates, P.A., in Winter Park, Florida, works hard to ensure our clients' rights are protected at all stages of the case, from investigation to appeal, if necessary. Our lead Orlando health care fraud defense attorney Bernard H. Dempsey, Jr., has more than 40 years of legal experience, working as an assistant district attorney and a special assistant to the United States Attorney prior to entering into private practice. Contact our Winter Park fraud defense firm today to put this experience to work for you.
Contact Dempsey & Associates, P.A., for experienced federal criminal defense representation in the Orlando area and throughout Florida. Call us at 407-550-0294 to schedule an initial consultation.
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