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$522M Medicare DNA Scam Sends Two Men to Prison
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Prison Sentences in a Very Expensive Scam Two men were… |
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Prison Sentences in a Very Expensive Scam Two men were sentenced this week after prosecutors said they ran a $522 million fraud scheme built around DNA testing and fake medical claims. Reyad Salahaldeen got 12 years and 7 months in prison, and Mohamad Mustafa got three years, according to the Justice Department. The pitch was familiar enough: wrap a scam in health care language, collect taxpayer money, and hope the paperwork does the heavy lifting. It rarely does forever, though the billing departments in these cases seem to think the rest of us were born yesterday. How the Scheme Worked Federal prosecutors said the operation used marketers, telemarketing calls, door-to-door sales, and health fairs to collect DNA samples and insurance information from patients across the country. Many of the people targeted were on Medicare, and they were told the tests were free or medically important, including for cancer risk. The tests were often not medically necessary, and the orders came from providers who had never treated the patients and did not use the results in care. In other words, a medical checkup in name only, with the real goal being a clean path to a dirty bill. Fake Paperwork, Real…
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