The owner and manager of a Palmview medical equipment supplier are under indictment for alleged healthcare fraud and identity theft.
A grand jury indicted Ace Medical Equipment and Supplies owner Velma Alaniz on nine counts of conspiracy, healthcare fraud and aggravated identity theft. Also under indictment is her brother, Valente Alaniz III, who works as the durable medical equipment company’s manager, court records state.
http://liarcatchers.com/fraud_investigation.html
The sister and brother under indictment are siblings of Palmview City Manager Johnn Alaniz, who is also a member of the La Joya school board.
Prosecutors allege Velma and Valente Alaniz submitted thousands of dollars worth of fake claims to Medicare and Medicaid when they sold power wheelchairs to the federal insurance programs’ beneficiaries between July 2008 and June 2010.
Rather than deliver the power wheelchair prescribed by the patient’s physician, the company allegedly sold them less expensive models but billed the federal government for the more expensive model.
Prosecutors list five instances where the company used the same Medicare and Medicaid billing code for power wheelchairs between March 2008 and September 2009. Each of the five claims resulted in about $4,900 in false proceeds received from the federal government, the indictment states.
Healthcare fraud and conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud each carry the same maximum punishment — up to 10 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. Each count of aggravated identity theft carries a minimum two-year prison term that must be served consecutively to any other prison sentences.
Each suspect made an initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Peter Ormsby on Wednesday in federal court. A detention hearing for each person is set for Thursday.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services-Office of Inspector General, the U.S. Secret Service and the Texas Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit investigated the case.
