FL Physician Sentenced 3.5 Years for Medicare Fraud

A federal judge has sent a South Florida physician to prison for his role in a $2.3 million Medicare scam, the U.S. Department of Justice has announced.

Jerry A. Spiegel, MD, of Boynton Beach, FL was sentenced to 41 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Spiegel, 78, was also stripped of his medical license and ordered to pay $880,958 in restitution, prosecutors said.

Spiegel, the former medical director of three Miami-Dade County HIV/AIDS-infusion clinics, was convicted last year of conspiring to commit healthcare fraud. Federal prosecutors said Spiegel signed patient prescriptions without examining patients or reviewing patient files. The HIV/AIDS-infusion medications that Spiegel prescribed were not medically necessary and were not administered to patients, prosecutors said.

During Spiegel's time as medical director, and based on the prescriptions he signed, the three clinics billed Medicare for more than $2.3 million in fraudulent claims. For example, from Sept. 3, 2008 to Dec. 31, 2008, R&M Services Center Corp., submitted $952,589 in fraudulent claims to Medicare, and received $425,385. From Aug. 29, 2008 to Jan. 23, 2009, Buena Vista Family Medical Center, Inc., submitted $769,094 in fraudulent claims to Medicare, and received $270,703. From Oct. 10, 2008 to Feb. 23, 2009, Solution Diagnostic Center, Inc. submitted $617,415 in fraudulent claims to Medicare, and received $184,870, prosecutors said.