Physician Who Falsely Identified Sufferers in Fraud Scheme Sentenced to 10 Years in Jail

A Texas physician, who was discovered responsible of fraud for falsely diagnosing sufferers with ailments they didn’t have, has been sentenced to 10 years in federal jail.

In line with a press launch from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Public Affairs, Dr. Jorge Zamora-Quezada was sentenced on Could 21 to 10 years in jail and three years of supervised launch for his position in a well being care fraud scheme that concerned greater than $118 million in false claims and the cost of greater than $28 million by insurers.

Throughout Zamora-Quezada’s Texas trial, prosecutors mentioned he falsely recognized his sufferers with diseases and billed their insurance coverage firms for procedures and exams they didn’t want for his personal monetary achieve.

Following his sentencing, Zamora-Quezada, 68, can also be being pressured to forfeit about $28 million, together with 13 actual property properties, a jet and a Maserati GranTurismo sports activities automobile.

“Zamora-Quezada falsely recognized his sufferers with rheumatoid arthritis and administered poisonous medicines in an effort to defraud Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE and Blue Cross Blue Defend,” the press launch said. “The fraudulent diagnoses made the defendant’s sufferers consider that they’d a lifelong, incurable situation that required common therapy at his places of work.”

“After falsely diagnosing his sufferers, Zamora-Quezada administered pointless remedies and ordered pointless testing on them, together with a wide range of injections, infusions, X-rays, MRIs and different procedures — all with doubtlessly dangerous and even lethal unwanted side effects,” the press launch continued. “To obtain cost for these costly providers, Zamora-Quezada fabricated medical information and lied concerning the sufferers’ situation to insurers.”

In line with the DOJ, Zamora-Quezada was a rheumatologist who was licensed to follow drugs in Texas, Arizona and Massachusetts. All of his medical licenses have since been revoked.

Prosecutors additionally argued that Zamora-Quezada tried to cowl up the fraud and “falsified affected person information to assist the false diagnoses after receiving a federal grand jury subpoena.” His scheme lasted practically 20 years and concerned about $325 million, the DOJ beforehand mentioned.

Zamora-Quezada was discovered responsible on one depend of conspiracy to commit well being care fraud, seven counts of well being care fraud and one depend of conspiracy to hinder justice in 2020.

Native outlet KRGV reported that his sentencing was delayed a number of instances as a result of prosecutors and Zamora-Quezada’s protection attorneys couldn’t agree on quite a few victims within the scheme or agree on the amount of cash that was stolen.

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Zamora-Quezada was additionally accused of making a poisonous setting for his clinic’s workers — a lot of whom have been on work visas to reside within the U.S. — by getting offended if they didn’t meet a quota for procedures or saying that he would hearth them and attempt to revoke their visa in the event that they spoke out towards him.

“Testimony at trial established that Zamora-Quezada advised workers to ‘aparecer’ the lacking information — ‘to make them seem,’ ” the DOJ mentioned. “Former workers additionally recounted being despatched to a dilapidated barn to aim to retrieve information. There, information have been saturated with feces and urine, rodents and termites that infested not solely the information but additionally the construction.”

In line with the DOJ, different rheumatologists in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley area testified throughout Zamora-Quezada’s 2020 trial that they noticed a whole bunch of sufferers whom he had falsely recognized with rheumatoid arthritis. One physician even testified that it will be “apparent” to “most” docs that these sufferers didn’t have the autoimmune situation.

Prosecutors additionally argued that the false diagnoses and medicines that Zamora-Quezada prescribed to sufferers prompted “debilitating” unwanted side effects, together with strokes, necrosis (or cell and tissue dying) of the jawbone, hair loss, liver harm and extreme ache.

“Always being in mattress and being unable to stand up from mattress alone, and being pumped with remedy, I didn’t really feel like my life had any that means,” one affected person testified throughout the trial, per the DOJ.

One other affected person’s mom testified that she felt like her youngster served as a “lab rat,” and different sufferers testified that they have been “residing a life within the physique of an aged particular person.”

“Dr. Zamora-Quezada funded his luxurious life-style for 20 years by traumatizing his sufferers, abusing his workers, mendacity to insurers and stealing taxpayer cash,” Matthew R. Galeotti, the pinnacle of the DOJ’s felony division, mentioned within the press launch.

“His wicked conduct represents a profound betrayal of belief towards weak sufferers who rely upon care and integrity from their physician,” Galeotti added.