Tuesday was not a good day for Senator Bob Menendez (NJ-D) or Florida ophthalmologist Salomon Melgen.
Melgen was not only indicted with Menendez earlier this month on federal corruption charges, on Tuesday he was hit with a new federal 76-count indictment per POLITICO that charged him with Medicare fraud.It is said Melgen and Menendez are longtime good friends so the Senator has vowed to fight what he said are frivolous charges but Melgen’s attorney and Menendez are not saying anything about this new indictment. Earlier on this month in Newark both Mendendez and Melgen pleaded non guilty to the federal corruption charges.
Federal prosecutors in Florida are saying Melgen falsely diagnosed patients at his practice in West Palm Beach and Delray Beach, Florida. It is alleged he would diagnose patients as having eye conditions such as age-related macular degeneration, submit false Medicare claims, create fake entries in his patient’s charts and then use those false diagnoses to perform what is said to be “medically unreasonable and unnecessary tests and procedures.” Those procedures included laser eye surgery and eye injections per prosecutors.
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Prosecutors are saying the alleged scheme ran from 2004 to at least December 2013.
Melgen was also accused of making “exorbitant and improper profits” for his use of the eye-treatment drug Lucentis. It is being alleged he would split the “single-use” vials into multiple doses so he could use it on several patients. Then he would bill Medicare for a full dosage for each patient.
It is said between January 2008 and December 2013, Melgen was reimbursed approximately $105 million from Medicare after he billed them more than $190 million for the procedures. Prosecutors believe a “substantial” portion of the proceeds was from fraudulent claims.Wilfredo Ferrer, U.S. Attorney of the Southern District of Florida released the following statement about the charges:
Medical professionals who violate their oath by failing to attend to the health of their patients and who submit falsified billing statements for their own personal gain, jeopardize the viability of government benefit programs.
In total, Melgen is facing 46 counts of health care fraud, 19 counts of making, presenting and filing false claims and 11 counts of making false statements relating to health care.
He is scheduled to be arraigned on the new charges on Wednesday in West Palm Beach, Fl.