Federal agents Tuesday arrested seven Miami-Dade residents -- including two doctors -- on charges of defrauding Medicare in an alleged scheme involving fake HIV treatments and kickbacks to patients. An eighth defendant was already in custody on a previous Medicare fraud conviction in 2007. They were charged with submit
-- Medicare officials took aim at a major area of alleged fraud in Miami-Dade -- home healthcare. Suspecting widespread fraud, Medicare has suspended payments to Miami-Dade County s top 10 home healthcare agencies and ordered all local home healthcare providers to reapply to the federal insurance program. After potenti
-- The U.S. attorney s office in Miami highlighted the soaring number of prosecutions of Medicare fraud offenders over the past three years. Healthcare fraud is massive in South Florida, the region s top federal prosecutor said Tuesday. But the creation of a federal Medicare Fraud Strike Force -- led by South Florida a
-- Two brothers, who escaped to Cuba amid charges of defrauding Medicare of millions of dollars, were reportedly being held in a Cuban prison. Cuban authorities are detaining three Miami-Dade brothers who fled to Cuba earlier this year when they were charged with defrauding $119 million from Medicare, U.S. officials fa
-- A key figure in a systematic fraud against Medicare admitted teaching others how to participate. A Miami physician s assistant who taught doctors how to prescribe obsolete HIV therapy in a $119 million Medicare fraud ring pleaded guilty Thursday in a federal case that reverberates from South Florida to
-- Univision and a national healthcare foundation are partnering to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS in the Hispanic community. Damaries Cruz was 20 years old when she was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. Doctors told her she had a year to live. But 17 years later, she is living with the illness and working as a health educator for
Two Miami doctors have confessed to plotting with a trio of fugitive brothers in their scheme to defraud Medicare of $110 million by billing the federal health insurance program for bogus treatment for HIV patients. Drs. Carlos Contreras, 60, and Ramon Pichardo, 58, pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in Miami aft
A Miami man who was charged with having unprotected sex with a woman and not disclosing that he was HIV positive has been released from jail. Elidor Kersaint, then a 22-year-old South Beach club promoter, was arrested in April of 2007. He accepted a probation plea with jail time, said his attorney, public defender Rita
A trio of supporting players in a South Florida Medicare racket has pleaded guilty to charges of fleecing millions from the federal health insurance program. The group -- a physician, a clinic administrator and a money launderer -- admitted in separate plea deals last week that they aided an elaborate conspiracy to bil
Christopher Dodd tends to a typical patient, Luis Orozco, 52, who had half of his left leg amputated after a cut toe turned into a gangrene infection. Orozco, a welder, doesn t have health insurance and didn t monitor his diabetes, which, left unchecked, can lead to serious foot problems. This was something we could ha
-- Believing in the power of personal stories to give social ills a face, the Human Services Coalition is gathering stories of hardship and success. Her husband, Thomas Cross, died of a heart attack on Christmas Eve 2004. With no health insurance, Angelia Calhoun had to lug around eight bags of documents and spend coun
Her husband, Thomas Cross, died of a heart attack on Christmas Eve 2004. With no health insurance, Angelia Calhoun had to lug around eight bags of documents and spend countless hours applying for aid and sitting in waiting rooms with her five children. In an economic bind, she joined the Human Services Coalition s Pare
A stroll down Northeast 27th Street doesn t feel X-rated, but it s here -- along a quiet, bayfront residential street -- that Miami has declared war against Internet porn. For about a year, Miami city leaders have tried to evict Khali Kreme, Sincere Luv and the other dorm dudes of Cocodorm.com, a gay porn site that fil
Most places, when the president of a wildly prosperous medical clinic comes under investigation for defrauding Medicare, we first hear about him in the dry text of a federal indictment. Justo Padron didn t reside in one of those places. Padron was a quintessential South Florida character. His downfall might have been p
-- Congress for years has turned a deaf ear to requests by the Medicare agency for money to fight fraud, which a Miami Herald investigation has identified as a threat to the federal health insurance program for the elderly and disabled. For years, Medicare has begged Congress to help stop the loss of billions of dollar
MEXICO CITY -- When Regina Molokomme s father, stepmother and brother died of AIDS, those setbacks propelled the South African educator out of her comfortable situation and into a life dedicated to helping others cope with the disease. Molokomme s journey to break her country s denial of the epidemic led her through a
The Benitez brothers were masters of Medicare fraud, prosecutors say. They spent their Medicare millions on Mediterranean-style homes, apartments, hotels, boats, a helicopter, even a water park -- all in the resort area of Bavaro, Dominican Republic , court records show. After they were indicted on fraud charges
-- A University of Miami researcher is helping crack-addicted HIV patients recover and limit spreading their infection to others. Researchers at hospitals in Miami and Atlanta have teamed up to see if they can break the grim cycle in which crack addicts engage in risky sex, become HIV-positive, then spread the conditio
Miami-Dade health officials plan a community health forum to address increasing health disparities facing blacks. As blacks in Miami-Dade face disproportionately higher mortality rates than their counterparts, county health officials are weighing the significance of race in obtaining quality healthcare. On Monday, a co
This is a business of sex and drugs. That s what Fort Lauderdale stockbroker Thomas Noonan says about the new franchise business he s helped his son, Travis, start. No, Travis isn t a pimp or a pusher. He s selling healthcare tests from a Fort Lauderdale store front, where people can walk in without an appointment and
On Jan. 15, Stephon Louis tested positive for HIV at age 19. Weeks earlier, in a night of pleasure, he failed to use protection. When temptation rises, it s hard to think about HIV/AIDS, confessed Louis, now 20, who was kicked out of his home for being gay four years ago. At my age, you think that nothing is going to h
ST. JOHN S, Antigua -- While President Bush is urging members of Congress to approve funding for the fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean, one Caribbean leader wants his colleagues to also ante up. St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Denzil Douglas said he plans to ask th
One of the nation s best-known groups of health centers has permanently shut down a cluster of clinics in Broward and Palm Beach counties. Planned Parenthood officially severed its ties Monday with five local clinics -- four in Broward and one in Boca Raton -- whose top administrator has acknowledged a history of terri
-- In Africa, advocacy groups are critical to providing care for people with HIV and AIDS because the countries themselves don t NEW YORK -- Farai Mahaso was studying accounting in London when he received the dreaded call from Harare, Zimbabwe : His mother had died. At that point, Mahaso s future work became clear.
Young people who have HIV are faced with yet another hurdle: higher rates of cardiovascular risk, a new study says. Children and adolescents living with HIV have sharply higher cardiac risk factors than their uninfected peers, according to a study done in part at the University of Miami School of Medicine. Many of the
News release: NATIONAL HIV TESTING DAY - FRIDAY, JUNE 27, 2008 Broward County Health Department announces FREE Anonymous & Confidential Testing Sites IT S BETTER TO KNOW ... TAKE THE TEST, TAKE CONTROL BROWARD COUNTY - The Broward County Health Department recognizes Friday, June 27, 2008, as National HIV Testing Da
The American Red Cross Greater Miami & The Keys received a one-year $30,000 grant from the Dade Community Foundation to help young people make smart decisions and develop healthy behavior to prevent HIV and AIDS. The grant will underwrite the Together We Can peer education program and community mobilization strateg
Three Miami area brothers were charged Thursday with participating in a $110 million fraud scheme involving the billing of Medicare for expensive HIV infusions at 11 clinics that they owned or controlled. Carlos and Luis Benitez were charged with referring Medicare beneficiaries to the clinics and ordering them to be p
Federal agents arrested three doctors and six other healthcare providers on charges of defrauding Medicare. Federal agents on Thursday arrested three Miami-Dade doctors and six other healthcare providers on charges of defrauding Medicare of $56 million by filing false claims for costly HIV drug-infusion treatments.
MIAMI - It s not going to make the big beasts lurking in South Florida s canals seem any nicer, but new research suggests a little alligator might be good for human health. Scientists in Louisiana recently found the blood of the American alligator such a potent killer of bacteria, including some resistant to existing a
It s not going to make the big beasts lurking in South Florida s canals seem any nicer, but new research suggests a little alligator might be good for human health. Scientists in Louisiana recently found the blood of the American alligator such a potent killer of bacteria, including some resistant to existing antibioti
-- U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey thanked federal agents combating healthcare corruption on the front lines in Miami. U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey came to the nation s Medicare fraud capital on Wednesday to thank federal agents combating healthcare corruption on the front lines in Miami. The sheer numbe
-- A sorely needed center for victims of sexual abuse has opened in the Florida Keys, and advocates say more centers are needed. KEY WEST -- Christina Rock was born HIV-positive. That s just the beginning of a heartbreaking childhood. Her mother died of AIDS when she was a toddler. Her addict father squandered governme
When we first heard Alicia Keys velvet voice and masterful piano strokes in 2001, she was a beautiful tomboy singing about falling in and out of love. Hers was a pure, unapologetic sound -- authentic, magical, enriched by yesterday -- that returned vintage soul to its place in the pantheon of music. With three studio a
A documentary about children in Uganda orphaned by war and AIDS brought a sobering message to students at Mater Academy Charter School. Thousands of children orphaned by war or AIDS in Uganda are largely invisible to most Americans. That is no longer the case for some students at Mater Academy Charter School in Hialeah
I m living with AIDS, not dying from it, John Muhammad wrote in 1999. He still lives, 21 years after his HIV diagnosis in 1987. All they had at that time was AZT , he says, referring to the first drug approved for treating HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS. As more medications hit the market, Muha
The baskets tell a story of possibility. Hanging from the newly painted wall inside his kitchen, Wilfred McNeil s collection hails from places as far away as Ghana . They show what men can do with their hands, explained McNeil, 55, one recent morning at his Overtown one-bedroom apartment. For the past year McNeil s
When Rosalyn Allen got up to give her testimonial at an HIV/AIDS awareness program recently sponsored by faith-based organizations, it was to tell about living with HIV and how God and members of her church, Mount Tabor Baptist, helped transform her life. The transition that took place in Allen s life, she told a forum
Seven local healthcare providers were indicted Wednesday on charges of defrauding the federal Medicare program of $11 million by billing bogus claims for HIV infusion drugs, according to the U.S. attorney s office in Miami. The ring allegedly carried out its scam on the government s elderly healthcare insurance program
First lady Laura Bush visited Haiti and called for the continuation of U.S. funding for AIDS programs in this country. PORT-AU-PRINCE -- The visit lasted only a few hours, but that s all first lady Laura Bush needed to conclude that major U.S. funding for AIDS programs, which has helped dramatically reduce the rate of
First lady Laura Bush is scheduled to visit Haiti Thursday as part of a two-day trip abroad to highlight U.S. efforts to promote healthcare and education. She will spend all her time in the capital city, Port-au-Prince, meeting with President René Préval at the national palace and later visiting the GHESKIO HIV/AIDS Ce
One in four U.S. teenage girls has an STD, a study found. For those who work with adolescents in South Florida, the numbers only enforced what they already knew. To those who work with teenage health issues in South Florida, the news of one in four adolescent girls being infected with a sexually transmitted disease is
The adoring crowds that recently hailed President Bush in Africa did so because the AIDS program he championed five years ago has helped more than 1.4 million people. Those crowds may have more to cheer in another five years, thanks to a compromise bill in Congress that would boost the AIDS-program funding and effectiv
The manufacturers of the over-the-counter drugs Tetrasil, Genisil, Aviralex, OXi-MED, Imulux, Beta-mannan, Micronutrient, Qina, and SlicPlus, which are intended to prevent sexually transmitted diseases, have been warned by the Food and Drug Administration to stop claiming they have FDA approval; they don t. Accord
Earvin Magic Johnson spoke to about 300 people at a town hall meeting, as part of a campaign to reduce the spread of HIV among blacks. Los Angeles Lakers star-turned-AIDS-activist Earvin Magic Johnson told a crowd Tuesday night that society needs to remove the stigma from people who are diagnosed with HIV. Then he impl
U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez on Tuesday trumpeted his proposal to stiffen criminal and civil penalties for people who abuse the nation s healthcare system, bringing his message to South Florida, the nation s worst haven for Medicare fraud. In Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties we probably have three of the busiest c
The empty blue casket with flowers on top stood prominently in the room, symbol of a community s anguish, as the mournful notes of the Taps slowly hung in the air. Dwight Jackson, funeral director of Richardson Mortuary, read out loud the obituary of a 16-year-old boy, affectionately called Little Dog, who had been pop
A Silence is Death Community March and other activities slated for today will be a highlight of the observance of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day to draw attention to the virus and the deadly disease it causes. The event will start at the NFL YET Center, 7090 NW 22nd Ave., with people gathering between 8 and 10 a
Privacy and confidentiality are the main reasons that lead people to choose home-testing kits to find out if they re infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, the Food and Drug Administration says. It s reminding consumers that there s only one product currently approved by the FDA and legally sold in the
A registered nurse helped two clinics plunder millions of dollars from Medicare by altering the blood samples of HIV patients so the clinics could bill the program for expensive treatments they didn t need, state investigators said Thursday. Alexis Dagnesses, 43, was arrested at his Southwest Miami-Dade home and charge
Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents arrested a South Florida man Thursday for his alleged role in a clinic-billing scheme. Alexis Dagnesses, 43, a registered nurse, was arrested at his house and charged with one count of organized scheme to defraud. In the scheme, a clinic was billed for unnecessary HIV medica
A special Medical Fraud Task Force helped to try and sentence nine Miami-Dade residents for Medicare fraud. According to data, Miami-Dade County accounts for more in claims than most small American states combined. Owners of nine Miami healthcare companies have been sentenced to prison in the past two weeks in a string
Their vacation was supposed to be about sightseeing and relaxation in Johannesburg, South Africa . But the day before Joanne Young and daughter Brittany were to return to their Coconut Creek home, they traveled 200 miles from their hotel to the rural town of Acornhoek for a glimpse of real life in one of the country
This information is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.