Boynton doctor Spiegel gets prison for Medicare fraud

By Palm Beach Business.com

WEST PALM BEACH — A Boynton Beach doctor who ran three HIV/AIDS clinics will be spending the next 41 months in federal prison for his role in a scheme to rip off Medicare.

Federal Judge Joan A. Lenard also sentenced Jerry A. Spiegel, 78 of Boynton Beach to three years of supervised release and ordered Spiegel to pay $880,958 in restitution. Spiegel was required to relinquish his medical license.

Last year, Spiegel, was found guilty of conspiring to commit health care fraud. According to court documents, Spiegel was the medical director of three Miami-Dade County HIV/AIDS-infusion clinics: R&M Services Center Corp., Buena Vista Family Medical Center Inc., and Solution Diagnostic Center Inc.

According to court documents, Spiegel signed prescriptions without first examining patients or reviewing patient files. The HIV/AIDS-infusion medications that Spiegel prescribed were not medically necessary and were not administered to patients.

The three clinics billed Medicare for more than $2.3 million in fraudulent claims based on the prescriptions he wrote.

Prosecutors said in one four-month period in 2008, R&M Services submitted $952,589 in fraudulent claims to Medicare, and received $425,385. In one five-month period the same year, Buena Vista submitted $769,094 in fraudulent claims to Medicare, and received $270,703. Spiegel’s third firm, Solution Diagnostic submitted $617,415 in fraudulent claims to Medicare, and received $184,870 over a five-month period.