Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2009. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Miami Herald - August 25, 2009
Jay Weaver
Jerry A. Spiegel, 77, of Boynton Beach was released Monday on a $100,000 bond after he was charged with defrauding the federal healthcare program for the elderly and disabled.
Spiegel's clinic, R&M Services Center Corp. in Miami Lakes, was paid more than $425,000 by Medicare between September and December 2008, according to an FBI affidavit.
Spiegel, who served as president of the clinic, prescribed "abnormally large amounts" of HIV infusion services for a half-dozen patients that caught the eye of a Medicare claims contractor.
The contractor's medical director "concluded that the medications purportedly being administered were not only medically unnecessary, but entirely improbable in terms of both frequency and dosage," the FBI said.
Spiegel joins a growing list of South Florida doctors, physician's assistants and other medical professionals charged with filing millions of dollars in phony bills with Medicare for HIV infusion services. The HIV therapy, administered intravenously, was rendered obsolete 15 years ago by antiretroviral drugs taken orally -- yet Medicare still pays for certain infusion services.
FBI agents are investigating Spiegel's alleged involvement in other Miami-Dade clinics that billed Medicare for millions of dollars in bogus claims for HIV infusion therapy, authorities said. The alleged racket involved cash kickbacks to patients, they said.
jweaver@MiamiHerald.com
090825
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