A Texas physician linked to an enormous Medicare fraud uncovered by a CBS Information investigation has pleaded responsible to federal costs.
In response to court docket paperwork, Daniel Canchola, 49, fraudulently billed Medicare for greater than $54 million value of companies, together with for genetic checks that CBS Information discovered preyed on seniors' most cancers fears.
CBS Information chief investigative correspondent Jim Axelrod revealed in 2019 how telemarketing recruiters would entice seniors handy over their insurance coverage data and a saliva pattern for a "free" genetic most cancers threat take a look at. These recruiters then partnered with laboratories and docs, together with Canchola, to invoice Medicare for costly and pointless genetic checks.
Many seniors informed CBS Information they by no means obtained any take a look at outcomes, however their Medicare accounts had been billed hundreds of dollars anyway.
In 2019, Axelrod questioned Canchola in a Dallas parking zone about payments he had submitted for a pair of retirees he had by no means met or handled, and whose accounts had been hit with $19,000 value of costs. Two weeks later, Canchola was amongst dozens arrested for allegedly taking part within the genetic testing scheme.
On Tuesday, Canchola pleaded responsible to a wire fraud cost and admitted to "prescribing…most cancers genetic testing with out ever seeing, talking to, or in any other case treating sufferers." Court docket paperwork present he additionally collected greater than $450,000 in unlawful kickbacks in change for signing the take a look at orders. He faces as much as 20 years in jail.