Olongapo Biz exec guilty, stole millions
An administrator with the Health Visions Corp. in the Philippines pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court in Madison to defrauding the U.S. government out of millions of dollars in phony payments through the health care program for active duty and retired armed services members.
Thomas A. Lutz, 39, of Olongapo City in the Philippines will face sentencing on the charge in March.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office here, Lutz cut a deal in 1998 with a medical provider in the Philippines in which his company would refer patients for treatment and received a 50 percent kickback in payments. To fund the kickbacks, Lutz instructed care providers how to double their bills that would then be paid for through the TRICARE program, which is the Department of Defense's worldwide health care program for active duty and retired members of the military and their families.
Because Wisconsin Physicians Service process and pays the claims for the government, the case was brought in Madison.
The charge against Lutz also says he instructed Health Visions Corp.'s own billers to inflate bills submitted through TRICARE by at least 233 percent.
"HVC also instructed its billers to create false documentation to back up fake medical diagnoses that were not on the hospital bills, but would be added to the TRICARE claims," the U.S. Attorney's Office said. "This false documentation included fake letters with pasted on letterhead and doctor signatures."
Total claims paid to Health Visions Corp. through Wisconsin Physicians Service from 1998 through 2004 amounted to $163,380,648. Of that amount $144,618,061 was paid through third-party billing while $18,762,587 was in the form of direct billing from hospitals owned by Health Visions Corp.
Court records show Health Visions Corp. established a lockbox account at Bank of America in Columbia, Mo., and instructed WPS to make all payments to that account. Health Visions Corp. instructed the Missouri bank to send the money, in $1 million increments, to an account at United Cocoa Planters Bank in Manila.
Lutz faces a maximum prison term of five years and a maximum fine of $250,000 for the count to which he pleaded guilty.
By Mike Miller - Capital Times
Thomas A. Lutz, 39, of Olongapo City in the Philippines will face sentencing on the charge in March.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office here, Lutz cut a deal in 1998 with a medical provider in the Philippines in which his company would refer patients for treatment and received a 50 percent kickback in payments. To fund the kickbacks, Lutz instructed care providers how to double their bills that would then be paid for through the TRICARE program, which is the Department of Defense's worldwide health care program for active duty and retired members of the military and their families.
Because Wisconsin Physicians Service process and pays the claims for the government, the case was brought in Madison.
The charge against Lutz also says he instructed Health Visions Corp.'s own billers to inflate bills submitted through TRICARE by at least 233 percent.
"HVC also instructed its billers to create false documentation to back up fake medical diagnoses that were not on the hospital bills, but would be added to the TRICARE claims," the U.S. Attorney's Office said. "This false documentation included fake letters with pasted on letterhead and doctor signatures."
Total claims paid to Health Visions Corp. through Wisconsin Physicians Service from 1998 through 2004 amounted to $163,380,648. Of that amount $144,618,061 was paid through third-party billing while $18,762,587 was in the form of direct billing from hospitals owned by Health Visions Corp.
Court records show Health Visions Corp. established a lockbox account at Bank of America in Columbia, Mo., and instructed WPS to make all payments to that account. Health Visions Corp. instructed the Missouri bank to send the money, in $1 million increments, to an account at United Cocoa Planters Bank in Manila.
Lutz faces a maximum prison term of five years and a maximum fine of $250,000 for the count to which he pleaded guilty.
By Mike Miller - Capital Times
posted by OlongapoCity Zambales at
7:24 AM
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