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‘Hit & Run’ Dentist With Offices In Passaic, Hudson, Union Gets License Pulled, $517,000 Fine ‘Hit & Run’ Dentist With Offices In Passaic, Hudson, Union Gets License Pulled, $517,000 Fine
‘Hit & Run’ Dentist With Offices In Passaic, Hudson, Union Gets License Pulled, $517,000 Fine An oral surgeon who needlessly pulled teeth and exorbitant payments from patients in Passaic, Hudson, Union and Monmouth counties had his license yanked and was fined more than $500,000, state authorities announced Tuesday. Andrew Maron, 58, had been prohibited from practicing in New Jersey since the state filed negligence, gross negligence and professional misconduct charges against him in 2015. Still, he continued to practice in New York, authorities said. New Jersey authorities said they pursued Maron after receiving complaints from no fewer than 17 patients, including a 93-year-old Medi…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Feds: Northeast Opioid 'Pill Mill' Takedown Nets Paramus Pharmacy Owner, Clifton Surgeon Feds: Northeast Opioid 'Pill Mill' Takedown Nets Paramus Pharmacy Owner, Clifton Surgeon
Feds: Northeast Opioid 'Pill Mill' Takedown Nets Paramus Pharmacy Owner, Clifton Surgeon The arrests of a Paramus pharmacy owner and a Clifton orthopedic surgeon earlier this month by federal agents were part of a massive crackdown involving the distribution of over 3.25 million opioid doses in “pill mill” clinics and doctors’ offices throughout the Northeast, the Justice Department said Thursday. A total of 54 defendants – 15 of them doctors -- have been charged for their roles in submitting nearly $800 million in bogus health insurance claims, the Justice Department said. Others include marketing executives, pharmacists, and the owners and operators of a genetic testing labor…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Former Union City Pharmacy At Center Of $65M Scam, Authorities Say Former Union City Pharmacy At Center Of $65M Scam, Authorities Say
Former Union City Pharmacy At Center Of $65M Scam, Authorities Say A pharmacy in Union City and another one in the Bronx netted nearly $100 million combined through fraud, kickbacks and other illicit means, the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey said Monday.  Prime Aid Pharmacy established relationships with pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) to receive reimbursements for medications, including specialized medicines. The PBMs acted as a go-between with Medicare and Medicaid and Prime Aid, authorities said.  Starting a decade ago, principals connected with Prime began paying bribes and kickbacks to physicians and physicians' employees to bolster business …

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by Paul Milo
Police & Fire
WIRED: Feds Charge Pharmacy Owner From Paramus In $5M Fraud, Bribery Schemes WIRED: Feds Charge Pharmacy Owner From Paramus In $5M Fraud, Bribery Schemes
Wired: Feds Charge Pharmacy Owner From Paramus In $5M Fraud, Bribery Schemes A former Hudson County pharmacy owner from Paramus bribed a local doctor with $100 bills stuffed into pill bottles to steer patients to his business, said federal authorities who took him into custody on Friday -- thanks, in part, to conversations secretly recorded by the FBI. Eduard “Eddy” Shtindler, 36, also produced bogus documents that generated even more income, raking in nearly $5 million in illegal proceeds through both schemes combined, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said in announcing his arrest by the FBI. Federal agents raided Shtindler’s since-closed Empire Pharmacy on Bergenline…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Feds: Wallington Doc, Fair Lawn Drug Store Owners Defraud US Workers' Comp Out Of $10 Million Feds: Wallington Doc, Fair Lawn Drug Store Owners Defraud US Workers' Comp Out Of $10 Million
Feds: Wallington Doc, Fair Lawn Drug Store Owners Defraud US Workers' Comp Out Of $10 Million Postal workers traveled from as far as Florida and Georgia to visit a Wallington doctor who helped the owners of a Fair Lawn pharmacy defraud a federal workers’ compensation program out of $10 million, authorities said. Federal agents on Tuesday raided the Morrissee Avenue home-office of Dr. Mark Filippone, 71, whom they accused of submitting bogus reports that allowed hundreds of now-former U.S. Postal Service employees to submit disability claims for injuries they purportedly suffered on the job. Filippone, a licensed physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist, also prescribed “expen…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Doc From Morristown Falsely Prescribed Adult Diapers In Huge Billing Fraud Doc From Morristown Falsely Prescribed Adult Diapers In Huge Billing Fraud
Doc From Morristown Falsely Prescribed Adult Diapers In Huge Billing Fraud Two medical professionals, including a doctor who lives in New Jersey, were found guilty of helping scam tens of millions of dollars from Medicare and Medicaid in New York, authorities said. Paul Mathieu, 53, of Morristown and Brooklyn resident Hatem Behiry, 51, used three medical clinics to send false claims to the federal programs over the course of a decade beginning in 2017, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman of the Southern District of New York said. Authorities estimate the scam cost the federal government $30 million.  Initially, Mathieu posed as the owner of the three clinics actua…

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by Paul Milo
Police & Fire
'Operation Brace Yourself': Feds Smash $1B Medical Fraud Scheme Targeting Elderly, Disabled 'Operation Brace Yourself': Feds Smash $1B Medical Fraud Scheme Targeting Elderly, Disabled
'Operation Brace Yourself': Feds Smash $1B Medical Fraud Scheme Targeting Elderly, Disabled Federal authorities charged 24 people in connection with a $1.2 billion health-care kickback scheme that used a network of foreign call centers to sell hundreds of thousands of seniors and disabled patients orthopedic braces that they didn't need -- on the government's dime. Those charged in "Operation Brace Yourself" – seven of them in New Jersey – included the CEOs, COOs and others associated with five telemedicine companies, the owners of dozens of durable medical equipment (DME) companies and three licensed medical professionals, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said. Some of them controll…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Fort Lee Insurance Broker From Old Tappan Admits Role In $5.6M Health Insurance Scheme Fort Lee Insurance Broker From Old Tappan Admits Role In $5.6M Health Insurance Scheme
Fort Lee Insurance Broker From Old Tappan Admits Role In $5.6M Health Insurance Scheme A Fort Lee insurance broker who lives in Old Tappan admitted his role Friday in siphoning millions of dollars from Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield and the United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2326 Health Care Plan. Lawrence Ackerman, 54, conspired with the former Local 2326 president, Sergio Acosta, to defraud Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of $5.6 million by covering 700 to 800 ineligible participants through bogus – or “shell’ – companies, a federal indictment handed up last year charged. Acosta, formerly of Passaic, pleaded guilty to embezzlement charges in April. Ackerman, who acted as …

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
New Charges Brought Against Paramus Neurologist In Massive Kickback Scheme New Charges Brought Against Paramus Neurologist In Massive Kickback Scheme
New Charges Brought Against Paramus Neurologist In Massive Kickback Scheme Additional charges have been brought against an Upper Saddle River neurologist with an office in Paramus who was snagged in a statewide kickback crackdown, authorities said. Terry Ramnanan, 65, who operates the Interventional Spine and Pain Treatment Center, "used his medical facility to fraudulently bill insurance carriers for more than 637 medical procedures totaling $682,000 related to patients involved in the kickback scheme," an indictment returned by a state grand jury in Trenton alleges. Ramnanan is among dozens of health care practitioners charged in connection with an ong…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Franklin Lakes Doctor Gets 18 Months In Fed Pen For Test Company Bribes Franklin Lakes Doctor Gets 18 Months In Fed Pen For Test Company Bribes
Franklin Lakes Doctor Gets 18 Months In Fed Pen For Test Company Bribes FRANKLIN LAKES, N.J. -- A physician from Franklin Lakes was sentenced to a plea-bargained 18 months in federal prison Wednesday for his role in a massive test-referral bribery scheme. Basel Batarseh, 57, will have to serve the entire term: There is no parole in the federal prison system. Batarseh, who had an internal medicine practice in West New York, previously admitted that he took more than $104,000 in payoffs from employees and associates of Biodiagnostic Laboratory Services LLC (BLS) of Parsippany between November 2007 and August 2010. In exchange, Batarseh said, he generated more t…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
3 Years For Passaic County Podiatrist Who Scammed Insurers Out Of $3M 3 Years For Passaic County Podiatrist Who Scammed Insurers Out Of $3M
3 Years For Passaic County Podiatrist Who Scammed Insurers Out Of $3M PASSAIC COUNTY, N.J. -- A North Haledon podiatrist who had offices in Passaic and Paterson got three years in federal prison Monday for conning Medicare and private insurers out of $3 million for more than 150,000 physical therapy sessions conducted by unlicensed and unqualified employees. Because there's no parole in the federal prison system, Anthony J. Enrico, 60, will have to serve nearly all of the sentence. Enrico told a U.S. District Court judge in Newark last October that he billed for more than 150,000 physical therapy sessions that were conducted by unlicensed and unqualified pers…

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by Jerry DeMarco