Dade Doc Sentenced To 20 Years In Prison For Medicaid Fraud
A Miami-Dade doctor will be spending the next 20 years in prison after being convicted of embezzling over $1 million in a Medicaid fraud.
Dr. Rene de los Rios, 72, was sentenced on Monday by U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard.
De los Rios teamed up with Damaris Oliva, owner of Metro Med of Hialeah, and billed Medicaid a total of $46.2 million for HIV therapy between 2003 and 2005. De los Rios falsified hundreds of patient records to justify writing fraudulent prescriptions for two Miami-Dade clinics: Metro Med of Hialeah and J&F Community Medical Center.
The clinics received $19.7 million dollars from the phony claims.
According to prosecutors Oliva learned the Medicaid fraud business from his brothers Carlos, Luis, and Jose Benitez who owned 11 HIV clinics in Miami-Dade and billed Medicaid $119 million from which they received $84 million. The brothers fled the country in 2008, and the FBI believes they are incarcerated in a Cuban jail on immigration violations.
Oliva, who pleaded guilty and cooperated with authorities, was sentenced to seven years in prison. De los Rios' attorney, Jose Quinon, attempted to get him a similar plea deal; however, the judge did not sympathize with de los Rios. She accused him of "blatantly lying" during his trial in April and went on to say he did not deserve the title of doctor anymore.
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