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TRENTON
- Attorney General Anne Milgram and Criminal
Justice Director Gregory A. Paw announced
that a Long Branch podiatrist was sentenced
today for billing Horizon Blue Cross/Blue
Shield more than $200,000 for medical services
he never rendered.
According
to Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Greta Gooden
Brown, Martin H. Weinstein, 52, of Long
Branch, was ordered by Superior Court Judge
Francis P. DeStefano in Monmouth County
to serve five years in state prison and
pay $200,695 in restitution to Horizon Blue
Cross/Blue Shield. The judge also ordered
him to permanently forfeit his podiatrist’s
license. The sentence was pursuant to Weinstein’s
June 11 guilty plea to health care claims
fraud, a charge contained in a 2003 indictment.
A
bench warrant was issued by Judge Michael
D. Farren when Weinstein failed to appear
at his Feb. 25, 2003 arraignment. In April
2007, at the request of the Office of Insurance
Fraud Prosecutor, Weinstein was arrested
by the U.S. Marshal’s Service in the
Dominican Republic. He was taken to Miami,
where he waived extradition. He was returned
to New Jersey on May 24.
At
his plea hearing, Weinstein admitted that
between January 1998 and January 1999, he
fraudulently billed Horizon Blue Cross/Blue
Shield about $285,000 for podiatric services
he never rendered. He was paid more than
$200,000. By means of electronic billing
from his office, Weinstein submitted the
fraudulent claims to Horizon Blue Cross/Blue
Shield. He diverted the insurance claim
checks to a post office box he rented. Weinstein
forged the patients’ names on the
back of the checks and deposited them into
his own account to steal the money.
“This
podiatrist was as greedy as he was devious,
submitting roughly $285,000 in fictitious
claims within one year,” said Insurance
Fraud Prosecutor Brown. “When health
care providers commit fraud, it is particularly
disturbing because the integrity of the
health care insurance claims process depends
on the trustworthiness of the licensed professionals
involved.”
State
Investigator Abraham Aquino, Civil Investigator
Michael Troso, and Deputy Attorney General
Steven B. Farman were assigned to the investigation.
Farman represented the Office of Insurance
Fraud Prosecutor at the sentencing. This
case was referred to OIFP by the Special
Investigative Unit of Horizon Blue Cross/Blue
Shield, which initially uncovered the fraud
and assisted OIFP in the investigation.
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