Mayelin Santoyo and Jose Martin Olivares of Miami, Florida were arrested this past week after they were accused of recruiting unqualified patients to a fraudulent clinic in return for kickbacks, a press release by the U.S. Attorney of the Southern District of Florida indicates. Santoyo, 28, and Olivares, 36, were booked into police custody on two counts each of receiving health care kickbacks and one count each of conspiracy to defraud the United States and to receive illegal health care kickbacks. It is unclear whether they qualified for bail bond. The press did not specify attorneys for the two defendants.
According to reports, Santoyo and Olivares acted as recruiters for American Therapeutic Corporation, or ATC, and its managerial corporation, Medlink Professional Management Group Inc. ATC was owned and operated by Lawrence Duran, the release states. As part of the alleged fraud, ATC offered mentally ill patients partial hospitalization programs, or PHPs. The organizations reportedly treated patients out of seven locations in the South Florida and the Orlando area.
Many of ATC's patients did not need or did not qualify for PHP, reports allege; however, the clinic allegedly took them anyway. Reports say recruiters such as Santoyo and Olivares would be paid commission for each person they convinced to sign up for PHP at Duran's clinic. The more time the patients were at the clinic, the more the recruiters would get paid, the release states.
Clinic employees would bill Medicare for the fraudulent treatments, sources say. Duran and his conspirators would then launder the Medicare payments as to avoid detection; some of that laundered money was then used to pay the recruiters in the form of kickbacks, the release says.
Santoyo and Olivares allegedly worked as recruiters at the clinic from February 2006 to October 2010. It is unclear how much they were paid as part of their roles. It is similarly unclear how many people they are accused of recruiting.