A federal strike force has charged 91 people, including doctors and nurses, in seven cities with Medicare fraud schemes involving $429 million in false billings -- including indictments against a dermatologist and a psychologist from the Chicago area.
An investigation coordinated by the U.S. Justice Department and the Department of Health and Human Services uprooted alleged false billing schemes involving $230 million in home health services, over $100 million in mental health services and $49 million from ambulance transportation.
Downers Grove dermatologist Dr. Robert Kolbusz was charged with falsely diagnosing patients and billing Medicare and private insurers for ineffective and falsely documented treatments.
Psychologist Sharon Rinaldi of Inverness was charged with turning in thousands of false claims for psychotherapy services to Medicare recipients in Chicago-are nursing homes. The indictment states she claimed to have provided services to patients who were dead. She also frequently reported providing more than 24 hours of services on a single date.
Phone messages left for Kolbusz and Rinaldi were not immediately returned.
The announcement marks the latest case in a concerted crackdown against Medicare fraud by an interagency Medicare fraud strike force.
The strike force was created under the healthcare reform law as a means of curbing waste, fraud and abuse within the $590 billion Medicare program that provides healthcare benefits to nearly 50 million elderly and disabled beneficiaries.
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