A Florida lab owner was sentenced to 10 years in prison for three fraud schemes, including a conspiracy involving $25 million in fraudulent Medicare claims submitted by Ellwood City (Pa.) Medical Center.
Daniel Hurt, 59, of Fort Lauderdale, was also ordered to pay more than $97 million and forfeit more than $30 million and the proceeds from the sale of a yacht, according to a May 7 news release.
Mr. Hurt pleaded guilty to his role in the schemes in 2022. He admitted to his role in acquiring thousands of cancer genomic testing samples from Medicare beneficiaries across the U.S., causing the samples to be sent to Ellwood City (Pa.) Medical Center and using the hospital as the billing entity for Medicare purposes. Medicare reimbursed the hospital more than $25 million for the testing.
He admitted to a similar but separate scheme in New Jersey between January 2019 and October 2021. Labs owned by Mr. Hurt submitted at least $53.3 million in fraudulent cancer genomic testing to Medicaid and received at least $26.9 million in reimbursements.
He also admitted to his role in a scheme to defraud health insurance plans, including Tricare and the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs. He admitted that he and others worked with patient recruiters to solicit patients who had health insurance. The recruiters would generate prescriptions containing the patients' information and a limited selection of expensive compounded medications. The formulations of these prescriptions were created or altered to receive maximum reimbursement from insurance companies. The prescriptions were then referred to a telemedicine company in Utah and were subsequently sent to a pharmacy owned by Mr. Hurt. He admitted to receiving more than $4.2 million from this scheme.