Alton clinic owner admits health care fraud
McALLEN – The owner of a now-defunct Alton health care clinic pleaded guilty Friday to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
Manuel Anthony Puig, owner of La Hacienda Family Clinic, told a judge he used a retired doctor’s billing number to forge more than 6,000 Medicaid bills and bilked the federally funded health care program out of $174,000.
The clinic owner also admitted that between May 2005 and January 2006 his business sought compensation for services he was not licensed to perform, procedures that never took place and for medication that he and his wife later sold at a profit.
Despite not having a doctor’s license, the 44-year-old physician assistant was able to open his clinic in 2005 by giving state regulators the name of a doctor who had supposedly agreed to supervise him on all procedures as required under state law and Medicaid program rules.
But the physician, who is not named in court filings, claimed to have never met Puig or discussed a business arrangement with him. The man had retired from actively practicing medicine in 2001 as a result of dementia and symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, federal prosecutors said.
Puig, whose clinic closed in 2007, admitted in court Friday that he forged the contract naming the doctor La Hacienda’s medical director and performed most of the clinic’s procedures himself.
He faces up to 10 years in prison at sentencing hearing set for October.
His wife — Romelia Sanchez Puig, a certified nursing assistant — also faces charges for allegedly filing bills with Medicaid on her husband’s behalf. She has entered a “not guilty” plea and is set to take her case before a jury next month.
In addition to possible jail time, the couple could be forced to pay restitution for the money they allegedly cheated out of the program.
Medicaid is a federal-state program that provides health care assistance for the needy, aged, blind and disabled and for low-income families with children.
Jeremy Roebuck covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 587-9377.
