On paper, Elizabeth Hernandez appeared to be one of the busiest medical practitioners in the U.S. in 2020, but in reality, she hadn’t seen any patients at all.
Federal prosecutors said it was all part of a massive fraud that cost Medicare $200 million. On Wednesday, Hernandez, a nurse practitioner in Miami, was convicted of healthcare fraud.
A message left with an attorney for Hernandez wasn’t immediately returned.
Hernandez, 45, played a key role in what prosecutors said was a vast Medicare fraud that took advantage of relaxed rules around telemedicine consultations in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As part of the scheme, telemarketing companies would contact Medicare beneficiaries to convince them to request orthotic braces and certain types of expensive genetic tests. The companies would then send prefilled orders to Hernandez, who signed them, claiming she had examined or treated the patients.
But prosecutors say that in most cases, she had never spoken with the patients.
In all, prosecutors say the scheme resulted in more than $200 million in false claims being filed to Medicare.
In 2020, Hernandez ordered more cancer genetic tests for Medicare beneficiaries than any other provider in the nation, prosecutors said — including oncologists and geneticists.
Prosecutors say Hernandez routinely billed more than 24 hours of office visits in a single day.
For her role in the scheme, prosecutors say she pocketed $1.6 million in kickbacks, which she used to pay for expensive cars, jewelry, home renovations and lavish trips.
Hernandez was convicted by a federal jury of one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and wire fraud, in addition to four counts of healthcare fraud and three counts of making false statements relating to healthcare matters. She faces up to 20 years in prison when she is sentenced on Dec. 14.
Hernandez’s case is one of several connected prosecutions involving 24 defendants accused of filing $1.2 billion in false claims to Medicare.
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