Henry Lora, MD, the former director of a Miami-area medical clinic, has pleaded guilty for his role in a Medicare fraud scheme that cost the government more than $20 million.
Dr. Lora served as the medical director of Merfi Corp., a medical clinic in Coral Gables, Fla. The clinic employed physicians and other medical professionals who wrote prescriptions for home health services, according to the Department of Justice.
In a plea deal with prosecutors, Dr. Lora admitted he and his co-conspirators wrote Medicare beneficiaries prescriptions for home health services that were not medically necessary or not provided. He said they wrote the fraudulent prescriptions in exchange for kickbacks and bribes from home healthcare agencies. Dr. Lora also admitted to falsifying patient records to make it appear as if beneficiaries qualified for home health services.
Dr. Lora pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and one count of conspiracy to defraud the U.S., receive kickbacks and make false statements relating to healthcare matters.
In March 2014, the owner of Merfi, Isabel Medina, was sentenced to nine years in prison for conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, according to the DOJ.
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