Miami Doctor Sentenced To 9 Years For Medicare Fraud

Miami doctor Henry Lora was sentenced to nine years in federal prison and ordered to pay $30.3 million in restitution for his part in a Medicare fraud ring.

U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno in Miami sentenced Lora on Monday after he pleaded guilty in February to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and one count of conspiracy to defraud the U.S.

Lora, 51, was the medical director of now-defunct Merfi Corp. when he wrote prescriptions for Medicare beneficiaries that weren’t needed or were never provided, according to Law360. In exchange, Lora received kickbacks and bribes from patient recruiters and home health care operators. Lora also was accused of falsifying patient records so they would qualify for Medicare services.

Merfi’s owner, Isabel Medina, also received a nine-year sentence after pleading guilty in January 2014. Three others, German Martinez, Lerida Labrada and Mayra Flores, received sentences of 24, 37 and 24 months, respectively, for serving as patient recruiters.

The case was part of the Department of Justice’s Medicare Fraud Strike Force, which has charged more than 2,300 people with bilking Medicare out of $7 billion in fraudulent claims.

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