United States v. Edgar Shakbazyan

EDITH H. JONES, Circuit Judge:

For the 39 days that it was open in 2009, a small Houston clinic accomplished a lot. It claimed to treat 429 Medicare “beneficiaries,” submitted approximately 9,300 claims to Medicare, and billed Medicare for $2.1 million. The clinic, however, was a sham. A vehicle full of “patients” would arrive at the clinic each day. The driver was paid to transport them, and the “beneficiaries” were paid to visit the clinic. After acquiring their Medicare information, the clinic would charge Medicare for thousands of procedures that were either unnecessary or never performed.

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