By Jeff Lipton
The problem was that those patients had died, authorities said.
Cantor was arrested on March 12 and charged with bilking Medicare and Medicaid out of more than $30,000 over an 18-month period, according to Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice. In about a dozen cases, the 47-year-old foot doctor, who runs Meadowbrook Foot Care PC, at 2302 Hempstead Turnpike in East Meadow, intentionally billed for patients who were dead, the D.A. said.
Cantor-s practice is across the street from the Nassau University Medical Center, where the doctor, a registered health care provider with Medicaid and Medicare, often treated patients, Rice said.
He kept billing his patients, even after they passed away, said a spokeswoman for the district attorney. That-s the only way he could do something like that.
Cantor, who lives in Jericho, was charged with third-degree grand larceny and third-degree attempted grand larceny, first-degree scheme to defraud and petty larceny. He was arraigned in First District Court in Hempstead, and bail was set at $3,000 bond or $1,500 cash. If found guilty, he faces a maximum seven-year prison term.
Health care fraud costs Nassau County taxpayers millions of dollars per year, said Rice. My administration will continue to lead the way when it comes to combating this growing problem. In our aggressive prosecution of these cases, we will be going after money that we can deposit directly back into the coffers of state and federal government.
Cantor-s arrest capped a two-year investigation into fraud allegations at his practice, authorities said. The investigation was launched in 2006 after a retired Nassau County police officer noticed a suspicious listing on the explanation-of-benefits portion of his insurance statements. The officer had never been treated by Meadowbrook Foot Care, and he notified county authorities about it, officials said.
Investigators from the district attorney-s Medicaid Fraud Unit, which was created in April 2007, and agents from the U.S. Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General would later uncover almost $68,000 in bogus bills the doctor submitted to Medicare and Medicaid from Dec. 3, 2004, to Sept. 7, 2006. Cantor obtained roughly $31,400 in bogus repayments from Medicare and an additional $97 from Medicaid, with another almost $36,500 of phony reimbursements rejected by Medicare, officials said.
Medicaid is a federal health care program administered by the state and counties to assist individuals and families of limited financial resources. Rice said that her fraud unit would continue to work closely with the county to uncover and return taxpayer dollars to state and federal coffers.
Medicare is a federal health care program, funded by federal tax dollars, that assists residents, the elderly and the infirm.
In announcing the sting that resulted in Cantor-s arrest, Rice released the telephone number of a newly created hotline that the public can use to report allegations of Medicaid and Medicare fraud. Rice said that callers have the option to remain anonymous, and that her office would aggressively investigate allegations reported on the hotline, (888) 633-4311.
I urge residents to utilize this hotline and to immediately report suspicious billing or incidents of suspected fraud, Rice said.
During the past year, investigators and prosecutors from Rice-s office have uncovered and prosecuted six cases of Medicaid and Medicare fraud totaling more than $2.3 million, she said.
Health and Human Services Special Agent-in-Charge Gary Heuer said his agency is committed to working with all levels of government to prosecute health care fraud. The investigation and arrest of Dr. Cantor is a prime example of the cases where state, county and local statutes provide an effective avenue for the prosecution of health care fraud, Heuer said. It is our hope that district attorney offices throughout the state of New York continue to pursue these offenders as diligently as Nassau County did with Dr. Cantor.
Cantor-s Bronx attorney, Lawrence DiGiansante, did not return calls for comment, and calls to the suspect-s East Meadow practice were not returned.
Comments about this story? JLipton@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 210.
