Russian-speaking nurse pulled off a $4,4 million insurance scam in New York and Florida

Nurse practitioner, immigrant from Russia, pleaded guilty in bill fraud for commercial insurance companies and Medicare. He billed nearly $4,4 million for services he never provided to patients. Writes about it AP News.

Photo: IStock

U.S. Attorney Zachary Cunha said in a statement that Alexander Istomin, 56, regularly filed fraudulent claims for in-person patient services he falsely claimed were in offices in Rhode Island, New York and Florida.

According to a press release on the website US Department of Justice, often the patients whom, according to Istomin, he met personally were in another country. But in most cases, when Istomin claimed to have personally seen patients, he was either in another state or in another country, often in Russia.

According to his page in LinkedIn, Istomin was educated at St. Petersburg State Medical University, and also studied at the Russian State Social University.

On the subject: At the request of the United States, the son of the governor of the Krasnoyarsk Territory of the Russian Federation was arrested: he stole American military technology and transferred it to Russia

The nurse used the names of patients and other information to obtain prescriptions he kept, prosecutors said. Istomin ordered that he be given medicines, which he then distributed to persons other than those in whose name the prescriptions were written.

In addition, the immigrant admitted to a federal judge that he had waived copayments for some Medicare patients, even though he knew that waiving copayments was prohibited. Istomin convinced his patients not to report his fraudulent Medicare billing.

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Istomin pleaded guilty to 11 counts, including health care fraud and aggravated identity theft.

In accordance with the plea agreement, he must, among other things, be deprived of all the money received from the criminal scheme. Sentencing is set for January 26, 2023.

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