In an update to stories posted on August 8, 2023, and April 26, 2022, a federal judge tossed out a jury’s conviction of Dr. Ron Elfenbein for submitting millions of dollars in fraudulent insurance claims for COVID-19 tests. Read a story from The Baltimore Banner.
Update to an April 26, 2022, story: Physician Ron Elfenbein, an owner and the medical director of Drs ERgent Care LLC, dba First Call Medical Center and Chesapeake ERgent Care, was convicted for submitting over $15 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare and a commercial insurer for patients who received COVID-19 tests at his testing sites. Read a Department of Justice press release.
Federal prosecutors say that under Ron Elfenbein’s direction, clinics billed Medicare and other insurers for coronavirus tests in combination with “more lucrative, but medically unnecessary” services, according to a grand jury indictment. These services “were purportedly of a 30-minute or longer duration, or involving moderate or high levels of medical decision-making, but did not in fact occur as represented,” the indictment said. The indictment alleges Elfenbein knew many patients were being seen for less than five minutes but directed staffers to bill for the higher-level services anyway, saying they were “the ‘bread and butter’ of how we get paid.” Read a story from The Washington Post.
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