The doctor who operated A Foot Above Podiatry, a Delaware County podiatry practice, was not above the law, federal prosecutors indicated on Wednesday, June 22.
Dr. Stephen A. Monaco, 59, of Broomall, stands accused of a $5 million scheme to defraud Medicare, Medicaid and four private victim insurance companies. A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia alleges that Monaco committed the fraud through his practice, A Foot Above Podiatry, Inc., located in Havertown.
According to the information, between January 2008 and October 31, 2014, Monaco submitted fraudulent claims to Medicare, Medicaid and four private victim insurance companies for podiatric procedures that were not provided, and podiatric procedures that were not performed. In addition, Monaco submitted fraudulent claims to Medicare, Medicaid and four private victim insurance companies for medically unnecessary procedures and services that were not reimbursable by Medicare or the other insurance carriers, court records said.
“Government funded health-care programs and private insurers continue to be negatively impacted by doctors who bill for unnecessary and non-performed medical services,” said U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger in a press release announcing the charges. “This office will continue to vigorously pursue those doctors who engage in such fraudulent and criminal practices in order to prevent those health-care fraud costs from being passed on to the nation’s taxpayers.”
Although Monaco is the only local defendant, he is far from alone. Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said an unprecedented nationwide sweep led by the Medicare Fraud Strike Force in 36 federal districts resulted in criminal and civil charges against 301 individuals, including 61 doctors, nurses and other licensed medical professionals, for their alleged participation in health-care fraud schemes involving approximately $900 million in false billings, a federal press release said.
The Medicare Fraud Strike Force operations are part of the Health Care Fraud Prevention & Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), a joint initiative announced in May 2009 between the Department of Justice and HHS to focus their efforts to prevent and deter fraud and enforce current anti-fraud laws around the country. The Medicare Fraud Strike Force operates in nine locations and since its inception in March 2007 has charged over 2,900 defendants who collectively have falsely billed the Medicare program for over $8.9 billion.
“As this takedown should make clear, health care fraud is not an abstract violation or benign offense – It is a serious crime,” Lynch said in the release. “The wrongdoers that we pursue in these operations seek to use public funds for private enrichment. They target real people – many of them in need of significant medical care. They promise effective cures and therapies, but they provide none. Above all, they abuse basic bonds of trust – between doctor and patient; between pharmacist and doctor; between taxpayer and government – and pervert them to their own ends.
The cases announced on Wednesday, June 22, are being prosecuted and investigated by U.S. Attorney’s Offices nationwide, along with Medicare Fraud Strike Force teams from the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and from the U.S. Attorney’s Offices of the Southern District of Florida, Eastern District of Michigan, Eastern District of New York, Southern District of Texas, Central District of California, Eastern District of Louisiana, Northern District of Texas, Northern District of Illinois and the Middle District of Florida; and agents from the FBI, HHS-OIG, Drug Enforcement Administration, DCIS and state Medicaid Fraud Control Units, the release said.
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