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Medicare Fraud Report, Miami Physician Found Guilty

Defendant Zabdy Westerburger, a Miami physician, was sentenced today in federal court on charges of conspiracy to violate the anti-kickback and false claims statutes and tax evasion, in connection with her participation in a massive kickback scheme involving pharmacies, medical equipment companies and Medicare beneficiaries. To date, more than thirty (30) people have been convicted of Medicare fraud charges in connection with this scheme. Today, United States District Court Judge James I. Cohn sentenced Westerburger to 46 months in jail, 3 years of supervised release, and ordered her to pay $2,357,723 in restitution.

Westerburger’s conviction resulted from her agreement to provide bogus prescriptions in return for cash kickbacks. Beginning in approximately April 1999, Westerburger established referral relationships with the owners of numerous medical equipment companies. The owners would bring “patients” to Westerburger’s office and specify which types of equipment and medications they wanted her to prescribe. Defendant Westerburger would conduct a cursory examination of the patients and then sign the requested prescriptions, regardless of whether they were medically necessary.

After signing the prescriptions, Westerburger collected cash kickbacks ranging from $50 to $200 per prescription from the owners. The amount of the kickback was based on the reimbursement rate for the items and medications prescribed, i.e., the higher the reimbursement rate, the bigger the kickback. The owners would deliver the equipment prescribed by Dr. Westerburger and then submit Medicare claims seeking reimbursement for the cost of such items. The medication prescriptions were referred to Miami pharmacies in return for a referral fee. The pharmacies would provide the medications to the “patients,” obtain payment from Medicare for the cost of such medications, and then kickback 50% of the monthly Medicare payment to the owners. As a result of this scheme, Medicare paid more than $2.3 million for unnecessary equipment and medications.